Persona 3: Alone in this World
by Changling96
Summary: He wakes up, surrounded and alone. He goes to school, surrounded and alone. He returns to the orphanage, surrounded and alone. But when midnight hits, Makoto Yuki understands, for the first time, that he is complete and utterly alone. And so, he fights and dies alone, as the world around him crumbles to pieces.
1. Ch 1: Prelude to Oblivion

Persona 3: Alone in this World

* * *

 _He wakes up, surrounded and alone. He goes to school, surrounded and alone. He returns to the orphanage, surrounded and alone. But when midnight hits, Makoto Yuki understands, for the first time, that he is complete and utterly alone._

 _In the spring of 2009, a teenage boy awakens to a nightmare world that traps him every night at midnight. With no Personae, no SEES, no Social Links, no Velvet Room, and no way of communication aside from a pen and paper, Makoto Yuki resolves to investigate the various incidents plaguing Tatsumi Port Island on his own in order to retain his sanity; assuming he lives long enough to do so._

* * *

Throughout Gekkoukan Highschool, a near collective cheer resounded throughout to building as the last bell ran on a Saturday afternoon. From the seniors to the freshmen, all the students were eager to all but run out onto the streets of the nearby Port Island; most making plans to visit the man-made island's Paulownia Mall or Iwatodai Strip Mall.

While not a student, one Isako Toriumi was more than a little happy that the day was over. Scratch that, she was ecstatic and could hardly contain it. All she had to do was some quick paperwork down in the Faculty Office, hope that she wouldn't run into Mr. Ekoda, and she'd be on her way. Grabbing her materials, the brunette walked across the front of her noisy homeroom to the door.

"Hey Kenji! Did you have any plans for the weekend?"

"Oh, Rio. I don't think I'm doing anything. Did you have something in mind?"

…

"So, I was totally thinking of going to that Blue V shop at the Mall to check out the stock they have. Who wants to come with me?"

…

Opening the sliding door and entering the hallway, Isako immediately noticed a distinctive head of dark blue hair silently walk out of classroom 2-E.

"Yuki-kun!"

Catching up to the teen, she noticed his quick and subtle movement to pause the music coming from his MP3 player.

Giving him a smile at the gesture, Isako continued, "Are you excited about the weekend? Any plans?"

Upon receiving a blank stare in response, the brunette chuckled nervously, "Right, I tend to forget about that. Anyways, did you have any questions about today's lesson?"

The blunet paused before shaking his head in denial.

"Ah, alright. Good to hear" Isako paused before moving slightly closer to the teen, "… You would tell me if you were having problems, right?"

After a moment of hesitation, Makoto gave one small nod.

* * *

"Hamuko-chan! Wait up!"

Hamuko Aristato stopped and turned just before she made it to Gekkoukan's front gate. Smiling as a familiar brunette ran to catch up, she couldn't help the cheeky comment before it left her mouth.

"You know, Yukari-chan, showing up late on the first day isn't a good idea".

Yukari glared back at her friend, resisting the urge to hit her for the plain mischief evident in her blood-red eyes. They started walking again before she responded.

" _You_ ran off on me!"

Hamuko pouted back at her, "What do you mean? I've just been walking all this time".

"Ughh" The unamused brunette slapped herself in the face, "You call in that favor and _this_ is what I have to put up with?"

"Miss Yukari Takeba" Hamuko spun around and faced her with a mock frown, "You should feel privileged and honored to work at the Port Island Home for Children and Young Adults. Working with those less fortunate than themselves was an integral part of a traditional woman's life in Japan".

Yukari glared, "Don't remind me of that conversation with Ekoda-sensei. That guy can be a real pain when he feels like it".

Hamuko broke character and laughed lightly. The two fell into a small lull in conversation as they passed a store with several televisions set up, all on various news programs.

"Police are investigating the most recent string of brutal murders throughout Iwatodai in the past month, with the latest being only two days ago…"

"…the victim was so violently killed that we're not even allowed to show the body on television…"

"…experts are still attempting to rule out if an animal attack was the cause of the incident…"

"…What in the world are our tax dollars going to if our police force can't identify the weapon used!? I've said it for years, but incompetency in Japan's police force has been running rampant in the past few years and needs to be stopped…"

"…Residents are being told to stay at home, lock their doors, and to call the police immediately if they hear anything suspicious, especially around the hours of 11PM to 1AM…"

"…Questions are being raised about parallels to incidents dating back two and ten years ago. Could we have a repeating serial killer on our hands?"

"What in the world is going on nowadays?" Yukari's comment drew back Hamuko's attention from the reports.

"I… I don't know".

* * *

"…!"

He collapsed to the ground, unable to react to the crushing feeling in the air quickly enough to make use of the broom in his hands. Pain hammered away at his skull as he gripped it with both hands. He would have screamed had his voice box still worked.

Gasping as he finally managed to force air back down his throat and the pain slowly faded, the blunet cautiously looked up.

Makoto looked around the hallway silently, observing just how long and dark the shadows were now and how sickly the moonlight was. Pale green light entered through a window further down the hall.

"…"

Silence. There was nothing but absolute silence around him. Staggering back to his feet, Makoto steadied himself against a wall and slowly made his way down towards the entrance of the orphanage. Under the pretense of an attempt to get some fresh air, the teen passed through several doorways before exiting the building.

Outside yielded more unearthly silence from the city streets. Walking out into the alleyways, Makoto managed to regain his footing the oppressive air had robbed him of. Turning a corner, the blunet knocked against something and fell backwards in surprise.

Silver eyes widened in shock at the sight. Just barely taller than he was, an imposing black coffin stood in front of him. The moon, only a few days short of being full, seeming intensified the sight by painting the coffin, and the several other that lined the alley further down, in more disgusting moonlight. Blood, thick and stagnant, covered various walls and puddled along the ground.

Makoto clawed at the cobblestone, desperately crawling away from the sight. Feeling bile burn at the back of his throat, he barely had enough time to turn over before he was hurling onto the ground. Wiping the corners of his mouth once he finally stopped dry heaving, the blunet blankly noting that he'd managed to make the pool of blood next to him look even more disgusting than it already was, he weakly flopped onto his back.

The whole world spun dizzily in front of him. It felt like there was no ground for him to hold himself onto. There was nothing other than absolute silence surrounding Makoto, not even the air moved enough to create an audible wind.

He closed his eyes, praying that his body would finally adjust to the situation and stop screwing with him.

That's when he heard it, the sound that normally would have been completely ignored in a city but cut through the silence easily; the sound of footsteps.

Makoto didn't move and continued listening instead. The footsteps didn't sound like they were heading towards him, to his relief, but were simply wandering around in a nearby alley.

"…ello?..."

The voice, a young adult male, echoed down the alleys to the blunet. Groaning mentally, Makoto eased himself back onto his feet and stumbled his way down to the nearest crossroad.

"Can anyone hear me?"

He was getting closer, sluggishly gripping a corner and turning down another shadowy alley.

"What was that?"

Closer.

"Who's there?!"

Closer.

"Wa… Oh my god"

Closer.

"S-stay away!"

Closer.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

Makoto stopped in his tracks. His blood nearly froze in his veins. As hard as he tried, he couldn't hear the man anymore and he was only a dozen or so feet away from where he thought he was. He wanted to run, but he was so close to potentially the only other living being in the area. He had to know what happened.

Turning one last corner, the blunet walked into the center of a square courtyard. There were a few benches placed at different points, but no sign of the man he'd heard.

*squish*

Whipping around on his heel, Makoto stared down at what just landed right behind him.

A leg.

Still dripping from just above the knee where it was ripped from its owner, the limb bled more crimson onto the cobblestone.

"Ahh…"

Silver eyes widened even further; the man in question landed right on top of his missing leg. He was covered in wounds, blood splattered all over his body. Weakly, as if it was his last action, he raised his head and stared back at Makoto with one hand raised.

"Help me…"

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, that's the pilot chapter for this idea I had a while back. You all can give a big thank you to LastDragonBorn for convincing me to at least start this idea out. I won't be continuing this work for a while as I've already got more than enough on my plate to do.**

 **So, where in the world did this idea come from? Well, I'd had the idea of having a Persona game where it was just the player trying to solve the big 'mystery' going on. However, in every Persona game, the player has their party to help them out. In P1, you start out with all your school mates. In P2, same thing essentially. In P3, there's SEES already established. In P4, you've got Teddie and Yosuke along with you for your first time in the TV World.**

 **In the end, I came up with a (medically) mute Makoto Yuki stuck in a situation where he has no idea what in the world is going on, without the Kirijo Group's aid and, worst of all, no access to the Velvet Room. So guess what? There's not going to be any Social Links, Personae, request; nothing. Makoto's stuck in the Dark Hour by himself where the Shadows are much worse than canon (i.e. there's no Apathy Syndrome victims, the Shadows just kill their targets). Keep in mind that I thought of this idea in the middle of another read-through of Berserk, so that's why I'm going to be picking on poor Makoto.**

 **Oh, and by the way.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 **You all didn't really think that was the end of the chapter, did you? I'm not that horrible that I'd have a pilot chapter end on a cliffhanger like that.**

 **Of course this is going to have a fight scene in it.**

* * *

Makoto took a step back as he hesitated. He felt like vomiting once again, but he managed to bite back the rising bile as he stretched an arm towards the wounded man. Gripping his hand tightly, the blunet moved to pull him to his feet.

He flinched back as a black blur landed right on the man's back.

"aaAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

The man screamed once again as his body contorted unnaturally, his back resembling a 'C' shape. But, that wasn't what held Makoto's attention.

It was the long, curved limb, something resembling a thin sickle, that jutted out from the man's stomach. Before he could react, the blunet watched as the limb easily jerked up and cut the man in half from hip to shoulder.

There was no final scream, or fountain of blood bursting from his wounds, as the man died. Cold, dead brown eyes silently stared back at Makoto as his torso tumbled to the ground in two pieces.

Makoto trembled, barely keeping himself on his feet as he slowly stepped backwards. The monster stood on several thin limbs, black ichor dripping off its entire body. Its entire body resembled a mutated version of a praying mantis, sans for the black mask with the roman numerals XI where its face should be and the fact of the matter that it stood about a foot taller than the teen.

It twitched and closely observed the blunet, the two silently starring at each other. Makoto slowly inched his way back to the entrance of a nearby alleyway. The monster took a single step forward before its entire body tensed and coiled.

Silver eyes noted the change and, before the monster could react, Makoto bolted for the alley. With a terrifying screech, the monster took off behind him.

Sprinting just barely kept the blunet ahead of the Shadow, despite its numerous limbs that for all intents and purposes should have tripped up the monster. The teen pushed himself harder, sharply rounding another corner and bursting out onto the streets of Port Island.

When the Shadow exited the alley and clumsily turned, Makoto was already halfway down the block.

Adrenaline fueling his dead run, the blunet looked all around himself in a vain attempt to find somewhere to hid from the chasing monster.

Just barely within the corner of his vision, Makoto spotted a fire truck in the middle of an intersection. Taking one last turn, the teen approached the vehicle. He just barely remembered the matron mentioning that there'd been a small fire nearby earlier that night when another screech jolted him from his thoughts.

The Shadow was there, only half a block from the intersection, and it was staring at him intently; Makoto forced the thought that it was deciding which limb to remove from his body first from his mind.

Quickly looking over the outside of the vehicle, the blunet closed in on what he'd hoped to find: a hatchet. Gripping it and pulling it out from its place on a small rack, Makoto adjusted his hands as he found his balance with the weapon.

He'd never held a hatchet before. He'd never seen a man die in front of him before. He'd most definitely never seen an overgrown praying mantis stare him down. Makoto came to startling realization that those three things were already being heavily sedated by adrenaline.

But worse of all, if by some small chance he'd manage to survive this encounter, he'd never be able to tell anyone what happened.

The Shadow began its approach, slowly circling around the teen as he waited for it to make the first move.

Makoto swallowed hard, the mantis seeming taking this as an opening as it charged straight at him. Reacting faster than he knew he was capable of, the teen jerked the hatchet up and sloppily parried the scythe-like arm away from him. He stumbled back, arms aching dully from the foreign feeling of taking an attack.

The Shadow stared at the lanky teen with new found curiosity. Every other one of his kind it'd hunted had screamed in fear, ran, or froze on the spot in front of it.

Gritting his teeth, Makoto got his bearings once more as adrenaline gradually overwhelmed the aches in his body. The hatchet managed to survive the first hit, a mark in the middle of the wooden handle being the only sign of the attack.

The two circled each other once again, moving away from the vehicle this time. The blunet was in the middle of a step when the Shadow let out another screech. Unlike the previous cried, this one shook the air as it traveled outwards. Makoto froze in place as the vibrations hit him, the joints in his body locking up in fear.

Just slightly off balance, the teen could only stare as the mantis tensed itself before leaping into the air and closing the gap between the two.

The ground around them practically exploded from the impact as Makoto hit the pavement. Stunned for a second, the teen could only try to catch his breath before looking back up.

The Praying Mantis was desperately attempting to pull its sharp arms out of the street, the two being almost completely sheathed in it. It was tugging and scrambling backwards in its mad struggles when Makoto picked the fire axe back up.

With one swing, he managed to cut one of the arms right off at the joint; the Shadow wailing in response. They were so close together now that Makoto could smell the old blood still splattered on its body.

He managed to ignore it, some part of his brain numbing himself to the sensation to the point where he reached out with one hand and firmly gripped the remaining arm.

The blunet could feel the monster struggling beneath his palm, but he offered it no sympathy. One hand still tightly on the hatchet, Makoto took a one-handed swing straight into the Shadow's head.

With one last jerk, the mantis ripped its arm out of the pavement and flung Makoto several feet down the street.

Gritting his teeth in pain, the teen rolled several times before finally coming to a stop. Propping himself up on his hands, the blunet stared at the monster.

The hatchet was still stuck in the side of its head, its one good arm trying and failing to get a grip on the weapon to take it out. It managed to barely get its arm around the handle when the fire axe slipped out of the wound and clattered to the ground.

The effect was almost instantaneous; the Shadow leaned heavily to the side as its mask splintered to pieces. It collapsed to the ground in a heap before slowly beginning to dissolve.

Unsteadily getting to his feet, Makoto approached the corpse cautiously; walking around the side to get to his weapon first.

That was when he noticed it. It was a shoe, once that looked as if it spilled out of the dead mantis' mouth. The teen hesitantly reached out for it, only to jump back in horror at what it was.

The man's foot was still in his shoe; nothing remained from the ankle up.

Makoto couldn't help it. He turned around and vomited onto the street.

* * *

 _Der_

 _Dra_

 _Dear Dir_

 _Dear Diary,_

 _I can barely keep my hand stead enough to write this. It hppnn It happened around midnight I think. I was cleaning up a small mess one of the kids made in the night when everything changed._

 _The air was so thick I thought I was going to suffocate. The moonlight was green but it was so dark out at the same time. I went outside to see if I could get some fresh air, but there were coffins all over the alleys. And then there was the bld bla blood. Everywhere._

 _It was so quit quiet out, until I heard him._

 _There was a mn man. He must have been a few alleys over when I first heard him._

 _But when I finally fou_

 _I just vomited again._

 _When I finally found him, he'd lost his lg leg to something. I still don't know what it was that attacked him, it looked like an overgrown insect. It rp ripe ripped him in half before I col coud could too toou touch him._

 _Then it chased me. I made it to the streets. I pilfered a fire axe from a fire truck. I killed it somehow. It didn't leave behind a body. By the time I was done vomiting, the corpse had evaporated._

 _I still have the fire axe; I've hidden it under my bed._

 _What happened._

 _What the hell happened tonight._

 _There was someone else. I wasn't alone._

 _And I let him die in front of me._

 _I…_

 _I'm alone. I'm always alone. There was someone else, but now they're dead._

 _I'm all alone._

 _…_

 _What am I going to do?_

 _Tonight must have been real, the hatchet still has the marks from when I fought._

 _I…_

 _I don't think I can talk to Toriumi-sensei about this._


	2. Ch 2: Languid Lullaby

**Updated: 30/7/2015 - Fixed some mistakes with Chapter 1, Hamuko now refers to the matron as "Baa-san" in conversation.**

 **A/N: So after a rather surprisingly large response to chapter 1 being released, I decided to say f- it to what I previously said and put out another chapter. Oh, and to the guest that asked: no I don't have an update schedule.**

* * *

Sunday mornings were almost exclusively defined by their lazy atmosphere for Hamuko. In her tiny, single room apartment, with its bland, and in places peeling, painted walls and damn near Spartan furniture, the brunette could lounge around in the sweatpants and tank top she'd worn the night before for a few hours before deciding on whether or not to leave her futon for the day.

Given that she was currently snuggled up to her long time best friend, and head-over-heels crush for almost as long, when the harsh rays of the morning sun started to beat down on her from her window, Hamuko elected to roll over on to her stomach to continue her cat-nap. She didn't even have to worry about the kids in the orphanage running around, making noise; the building she was in was several alleys away from her old home.

Classmates of hers used to joke about her similarities to hamsters. She'd always considered herself more aligned with the feline part of nature than the rodent side.

But, as fate and every god or goddess that ever hated Morpheus would have it, Hamuko's phone began buzzing away on the hardwood floor next to her. She resisted the urge to throw the bothersome device straight out the window and settled for groaning into her pillow.

When it was clear that she wasn't receiving a text message and, yes, someone was in fact calling her, Hamuko gracelessly rolled off the futon and snatched the noise-maker off the ground before it disturbed her fellow brunette.

Not bothering to check the number calling her, she opened her phone with a flick of her wrist, answering with a half cheery half irritated, "Hello?"

" _Hamuko-chan? Dearie, is that you?"_

"Baa-san? Is something the matter?" Living on her own for the past year, this wasn't the first time Hamuko had received a call from the orphanage's matron to check in with her. However, never before did she sound this _relieved_.

" _Ah, just one minute dearie. Yes, Lee-chan, you can watch…"_

Hamuko smiled as she easily envisioned the matron doting on the children that woke up early enough to watch cartons and stressing the importance of being quiet as others were still sleeping. Sudden movement dragged her attention back to where Yukari was fast asleep. She'd rolled over and looked like she was reaching out to where Hamuko's warm body used to be. Yukari'd claimed that she slept a great deal better here in what Hamuko referred to as a prison cell than her own home.

After meeting her mother once, Hamuko almost instantly understood Yukari's plight even if she didn't completely agree with how the teen was handling the situation. Running away from your problems when you still had a chance to solve them wasn't the best solution, but there weren't many ways to deal with a dead-beat mother. So while the crappy, government-provided apartment just barely passed its monthly inspections, it also guaranteed that their sleepovers wouldn't be interrupted by Yukari's mom coming home piss-drunk with some stranger off the street and the intention of getting busy on the kitchen counter.

With the sunlight illuminating her, Hamuko couldn't help but think that her view of the brunette was pulled straight from one of her dreams. Though, she'd need to narrow the pool of dreams down to the ones that were PG.

Hamuko shuddered; one too many of her dreams involved her, Yukari, and a distinct lack of clothes. Her only goal at the moment was attempting to ask the brunette out on a legitimate date – they'd been to several movies together before and visited Paulownia Mall even more times than she could remember – without looking like a tomato in the process. Yes, she'd court Yukari good and proper; chances were that she was beyond scarred from all of her mother's sleeping around to be interested in anything other than a legitimate relationship. All she had to do was not make herself look like an absolute dork and well crap that was something she _really_ needed to work on. Regardless, there was no rush, they were still young. They had plenty of time.

" _Dearie, are you still there?"_

"Yes, Baa-san. Did you want to talk about something?"

The matron paused before responding, " _Have you looked out your window this morning?"_

Hamuko gave her phone a confused look before remembering she wasn't in a face-to-face conversation to begin with. "No, I only got out of bed when you called".

" _Well, dearie, I think you should"_.

"Right", walking over to the opposite side of the room, Hamuko peered out the window. It overlooked a small square courtyard, one that had a few benches scattered throughout it that on a normal Sunday morning would have at least one person sitting down.

Today clearly wasn't a normal Sunday, evident by the long rolls of police tape blocking off most of the courtyard and a dark blue tarp keeping prying eyes and news cameras from viewing where multiple officers wearing gloves were rushing around.

The voice of a news woman standing between a camera and the tarp floated up to the brunette.

"…are saying that the latest victim of this string of brutal murders was a twenty-five year old office worker. He was found shortly after midnight, having suffered from fatal slash wounds that the police are having trouble identifying…"

"Oh".

" _Oh is right, dearie. I was just calling to make sure you're alright"_.

"Yeah, I'm fine Baa-san. However, I'd have to guess by now that at least one little child has woken up hungry".

" _Ke Ke, you might be… Yes, I'll be right there Ken-chan! I'll talk to you more on Monday"_

"Right, see you then matron".

Snapping her phone shut, Hamuko sighed. Seeing the scene of yet another murder definitely got rid of any remaining drowsiness she'd had. She couldn't exactly blame the matron; worry from a maternal source wasn't exactly something the brunette could get angry about.

Well, since she was wide awake already, Hamuko figured she could make breakfast this morning. Walking over and opening her small refrigerator, she could only sigh.

She'd need to go grocery shopping. Again.

* * *

It happened once again.

Green moonlight flooded his room as Makoto sat down at his desk chair. Blood dripped down his window as all noise from his surroundings ceased to exist.

The smell of blood, something he must have completely missed in the chaos of previous night, made Makoto gag. He hadn't eaten in several hours, a foresight he was whole-heartedly thanking himself for as he dry-heaved but nothing came out.

Finally calming himself down, the bluet slowly climbed out of his chair and reached under his bed. Upon contact with solid wood, he could feel himself calm down slightly as he pulled the hatchet out into the open.

Sitting on top of his covers, Makoto tightly gripped his only weapon as he listened to the maddening silence.

* * *

It was only Monday afternoon and Junpei already ran out the gates of Gekkoukan only minutes after the bell rang.

He didn't feel like hanging out with his friends today or going to baseball practice though he only occasionally went to that anyways.

No, the only thing he felt like doing was kicking a rock or can down the street and maybe going to Paulownia Mall to hit the arcade.

"Damn Dad" He muttered under his breath, barely keeping another string of expletives from reaching the air.

That Sunday, instead of doing the sensible thing and paying the rent like a reasonable parent, one certain cap-wearing teen's father had decided to pocket the money and get completely plastered. If he'd been only a year older, Junpei would have been able to kick his dad out on the curb for the night to let him sober up.

Instead, he'd been forced to spend several hours cleaning vomit off various surfaces of their apartment while his dad crashed on the couch in the dead of the night.

"Bastard".

Junpei couldn't help himself when he let loose a vicious kick that sent a poor rock sailing down the sidewalk, coming to a stop in front of a storefront with a television showing the news.

"In other news, this Thursday will be a full moon. Our weather forecast is predicting clear skies for the rest of the week, so don't miss out on this chance to see the full moon. Again, the full moon will be occurring this Thursday…"

* * *

 **A/N: For those that might be questioning whether or not the first half of this chapter was one big Hamuko x Yukari flag, you'd be wrong. For the first half of this chapter, I went to top of Mount Everest to plant my MC/FeMC x Yukari flag right on the very top. Because I don't half-ass things.**

 **Anyways, this was more of a build up chapter than anything else, so there probably won't be a similar one in the future. Yes, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled gory, fight scene filled programming shortly enough.**

 **Oh, and next chapter will be the Magician Full Moon.**


	3. Ch 3: First Contact

**A/N: This'll probably be the last update for some time. I'm enjoying writing this, but I've got other things I really need to work on.**

 **None the less, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

"Welcome to Bookworm Bookstore. How many guests? Smoking or non smoking?"

"Umm".

One Fuuka Yamagishi stood just within the entrance to the small bookstore located on the ground floor of the Iwatodai Strip Mall. She'd visited on more than one occasion in the past, but it seemed that no amount of time could smooth out the sheer awkwardness she felt whenever Bunkichi, the male half of the couple that owned the store, 'forgot' he ran a bookstore.

"Fuuka-chan" Mitsuko, the female and more grounded half of the couple, gave her a warm smile, "it's lovely to see you again. You can ignore my husband's teasing".

Bunkichi laughed heartily, "That's right, Fuuka-chan, I simply jest. Uh… What was your name again?"

Mitsuko poked her husband in the side, "It's Fuuka-chan". Turning back to the green-haired girl, who was now looking a bit out of place among the banter, she addressed her, "What can we do for you today?"

"I-I… I was wondering if you had that cookbook in yet…" Fuuka responded meekly. She'd been trying to get better at the art of cooking, to little success. The cookbook in question was one especially for beginners.

Fuuka nearly jumped out of her socks when said cookbook appeared seemingly from thin air in front of her.

"And there it is, thanks Makoto-chan" Bunkichi chuckled, "Be careful of that one, Fuuka-chan, I've heard it's a real _knockout_ ".

Taking the book with a small amount of apprehension, Fuuka skimmed through the pages, taking in the long notes that covered the majority of the margins. Nodding in approval, she suddenly realized where she got the book but couldn't find a sign of the blunet when she checked where she though he'd be.

"He's like a storm, that one" Bunkichi spoke in a wistful tone, "Just what I'd want in a grandson".

Fuuka looked at the store owners in confusion, "Does Yuki-kun work here?"

Mitsuko smiled sadly before responding, "Yes, he's been a great help to us. He works hard, but he always seems to be listening to his music".

As if on cue, the teen briskly exited from the back of the bookstore and went back to attempting to organize the piles upon piles of books on the other side of the room.

* * *

"Thank you for your hard work today, Makoto-chan" Mitsuko warmly said to the blunet, who silently bowed in response.

Bunkichi walked up to the teen with a small envelope, shoving the object into his hands, "Here's your pay for the day. I almost feel like I'm giving my grandson some spending money".

Makoto pocketed his pay and, after one final bow, left the bookstore, out where the sun was just barely beginning to set.

…

"You noticed it too, right Mitsuko?"

The lady nodded her head in agreement, worry plastered across her face, "He looked pale; a bit thin too. Do you think he's eating right?"

"I…" Bunkichi removed his glasses and wiped them clean with his handkerchief, "I think he's got something on his mind. Today's the fourth day in a row that he's worked; we're lucky if we see him twice a week normally. No, one only works themselves that hard if they want to keep their mind off of something".

* * *

He was in his room, again.

Green moonlight, courtesy of the full moon, poured in through the window with even more vigor than the previous four nights Makoto had spent deathly still; watching to make sure something like that monster didn't appear.

He sighed. Or rather, he tried to sigh. He's ruined voice box made a weird noise that the teen immediately stopped before he ended up coughing up blood.

Still, the sentiment remained the same; Makoto gripped his hatchet in one hand and left his room. The only difference from the first night was a single coffin in the hallway with him. One of the children must have awoken to go to the bathroom.

After leaving the orphanage, the blunet stopped to stare at the moon. It looked massive in the sky while the amount of moonlight it was giving off was immense enough that he had a hard time focusing on it. The smell of blood still hung through the air, low and stagnant. Deciding on a walk, Makoto made his way down the cobblestone alleys, careful to avoid the scattered pools of blood.

The rattling of a nearby chain link fence sent the teen's blood pressure skyrocketing as he spun around, axe ready.

Nothing, there was nothing, or no one, anywhere near where he hear the sound coming from.

Turning back around to continue his walk, Makoto was completely unable to react to the black hand that covered his mouth and nose.

* * *

…

…

…

* * *

…

…

…

* * *

…

…

…

The return to consciousness was a slow trip for Makoto, though his view didn't change much. It was still completely dark in the shadows cast by the full moon.

However, he did quickly realize he was being dragged by his ankles.

By some miracle, the blunet manage to retain his grip on his fire axe despite his lack of a conscious choice to do so.

He'd planned to figure out where exactly he was, but the change of ground from cobblestone to concrete and gravel, along with the shadowy outline of the structure, told him he was in a construction site of sorts.

Makoto twisted to try to get a better view of what was abducting him, and immediately regretted it.

A man lay, face down, just barely outside of the structure. His death had been far from quick, the massive pool of blood he was lying in suggested he'd bled out.

Heavily resisting the urge to vomit, a skill he was getting better and better at as he'd hardly been able to stomach any food the past few days, Makoto forced himself to remain still as he was dragged right past the body.

Twisting himself the other way, the blunet got his first look at his captor. Its entire body was composed of the same disgusting ichor that had covered the body of the Praying Mantis, only it seemed to slide across the ground rather than have any physically limbs. Both of the teen's legs were stuck to its backside.

The monster turned and began to move up a flight of stairs, an action that had Makoto silently cursing the Shadow as he kept his head from slamming against the concrete steps.

After three more flights, they'd finally managed to reach where the workers had finished for the day. The structure clearly had more stories to be put in, as shown by several steel beams jutting upwards. Scattered around the roof were more steel beams, most of them a part of bundles held together by tarp and cable, but that wasn't what had the blunet's attention.

It was the bodies.

Nearly half a dozen corpses littered the ground around him. Some looked fresher than others.

"GAH!"

A man stumbled away from another pair of monsters, a hole in his throat slowly draining away his life. He fell face down after a black hand firmly grabbed his ankle and yanked. Another monster, wearing a purple mask, slid over to man and decapitated him.

Two more monsters appeared from the shadows, dragging a woman who was vainly struggling against their grip. The one that seemed to be in charge of the executions motioned to bring her over.

Makoto acted.

Before the one holding him by his ankles could reacted, the teen had already coiled and uncoiled his body; the edge of his fireaxe coming down like a steel trap and crushing it instantly.

The other monsters quickly turned to face this new threat as Makoto sprang to his feet and rushed them. The executor reached out with claws made of the shadows themselves and swiped at the blunet. Ducking under the first, the teen shoved the second hand away before cleaving apart the Shadow with his hatchet.

Not wasting momentum, Makoto spun on his heel and charged the two holding the woman. Neither monster seemed keen on relinquishing their position, so he tossed the fireaxe to the side and grabbed the Shadow holding her legs.

One solid tug was all it took to rip the monster's grip from the woman; the blunet throwing the remains over his shoulder without bothering to finish it off. Looping one arm around her waist, Makoto pulled the woman to her feet while removing the Shadow holding her hands behind her back. The purple mask it was wear crumbled beneath his foot.

"Who are, where are, what?" The woman was seconds away from panicking when the teen roughly shoved her towards the stairs.

More monsters were crawling down the framework of the building as Makoto picked back up his hatchet. Slowly, as to not cause any drastic reactions, the two survivors inched their way to the stairs.

One monster let out a shriek and all present ran in pursuit.

After another hard shove, the woman sprinted down the flight of stairs with Makoto hot on her heels. The monsters followed, practically falling over themselves as they moved into the tighter corridor of the staircase.

"N-No! Get away!"

Arriving at the second floor, Makoto grabbed the woman by the collar and threw her to the side as three monsters – they crawled down the side of the building – approached.

The teen threw himself into the fray, the knowledge of the horde approaching from above spurring him knock aside the three rather than kill them. Tightly gripping the woman's hand, the two ran down the final flight of stairs.

Their grip failed when one last black blob threw itself at Makoto. Stumbling backwards, with the hatchet being the only thing between the two, the woman faltered; caught between escaping and helping the teen that saved her life.

The blunet grit his teeth as he got one hand free to quickly gesture towards the exit. The message was clear: _don't be stupid, run for your life._

The woman fled as Makoto managed to gain proper leverage to remove the Shadow from himself. He finished it off just as the remainder of the monsters caught up to him.

They spread out now that they were on the more open ground floor, ten monsters total slowly crawling towards the blunet.

"AHH!"

He twister around and almost puked at what he saw; the woman hanging helplessly off the floor with an arm, more thin and long than its fellow Shadows, and a dagger of similar characteristics through her chest.

"I-I'm sorry… Suki-chan" She coughed up blood, "Looks like mommy won't be home tonight… either…"

The dagger and arm were suddenly pulled out of the woman, her corpse falling to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

It showed itself.

Unlatching itself from the ceiling where it had been hiding, a monster with far too many arms and far too many legs landed on the floor directly on top of the woman's dead body. One hand held a blue mask with the Roman number for one on it while the rest suddenly were armed with more daggers.

It let out a bellowing roar, one that sent all the monsters behind Makoto running away and into the shadows. The teen stood stock still, unable to react to what had just happened. His mind was still thawing when the Magician threw one of its daggers at him.

He just barely reacted fast enough to not lose his head, but the blunet still felt the pain of the blade ripping a tear into his shoulder.

Makoto had no idea what he was doing when he sprinted back to the staircase, ducking as more daggers filled the air. A concrete pillar next to him exploded from the impact.

Taking the stairs two at a time, the teen desperately tried to get his mind back in order. Reaching the second floor, the path to the next stairway was blocked by the Magician bodily throwing itself at it, forcing him to retreat further back onto his current floor. Ducking behind several concrete pillars, Makoto thought for a moment that the Shadow's large size would inhibit it greatly.

Then it just charged through the first row of pillars, its long arms with their deadly armaments flowing towards the startled teen.

A few of the blades, the ones Makoto thought looked like they would hit vital spots if he didn't, were deflected by the handle of the fireaxe while the rest ripped more tears into his jacket. Grabbing two that buried themselves into a plaster wall, the blunet chopped them off the main body with his hatchet.

The Magician screeched in pain, tensing itself before throwing itself forward again. Makoto flung himself to the side as the Shadow barreled past, getting to his feet and sprinting for the stairs leading upwards once more.

The monster didn't confront him on the third floor, but the blunet saw it climbing up to the top floor.

It was waiting for him when the teen arrived on the temporary roof top, its body tense and prepared for battle. Once again, it sent most of its arms against Makoto. Instead of running away, he ran forward and slid behind a palate of plywood. Most of the arms planted themselves into the roof and he deflected one that would have taken off his head. The two the blunet couldn't block left long, shallow wounds along his sides.

Hissing from the pain, Makoto shakily got back to his feet before running towards the side of the building facing the entrance. The Magician lashed out and caught the teen with an arm, sending him flying into one of the bundles of steel beams. Said bundle slid and teetered dangerously on the edge of the roof.

He could barely keep himself standing now, his torso feeling like it had been hit by a truck.

The Shadow screeched one final time, tensing itself as Makoto steadied himself with his hatchet. It flung itself forward, the teen collapsing into the ground to avoid having his head taken off. Sweeping low, it ripped two long cuts along the blunet's back. The Magician landed on some scaffolding that was on the side of the building, one of its feet having broken through the woodwork during its landing.

Seizing his chance, he staggered over and smashed the side of the wooden plank holding the scaffolding in place.

The effect was almost instantaneous as the structure collapsed, the effect of each level of the scaffolding slamming into the one below it dragged the Magician down with it. It flailed futilely as it fellow four stories onto the ground below. The impact of hitting the ground clearly stunned it, but didn't finish it off.

Adrenaline pumping, Makoto dropped his shoulder against the bundle of steel beams and began shoving it as hard as he could. His sneakers struggled to maintain their grip from the amount of force being placed on his body to attempt to move the object. The bundle barely budged and the teen gave it another hard shove, his back flaring in pain. The bundle balanced momentarily on the edge of the roof before gravity took its toll.

On the ground, the Magician groggily looked up as a dozen steel beams rained down on its body.

* * *

After limping down four flights of stairs, Makoto was prepared to never walk up or down another for the rest of his life, even if it meant missing all his classes.

Continuing his slowly, unsteady gait, the teen gave the monster a wide berth to examine it. Despite falling four stories and being impaled numerous times by solid steel beams, it was still struggling, making a pitiful noise that disgusted Makoto; it sounded like it was crying.

Making sure that all of its hands were pinned, the blunet gripped his hatchet with the intention of finishing the beast off.

"Shh, shh, it's going to be okay".

He froze. Materializing out of the shadows was what looked like a young boy with black hair wearing what looked like pinstriped pajamas. He bent down and lovingly patted the Magician's mask, said monster ceasing its struggles to lean into the boy's hand.

"That's right, don't struggle. You'll be alright".

He had to bite back bile as it burned the back of his throat. Walking with as much force as he could still muster, Makoto pushed the boy aside and slammed his fireaxe against the Magician's mask.

When that didn't break it, he swung again.

When that didn't fully break it, he swung again.

When _that_ didn't fully break it, he swung _again_.

It took four swings before the mask completely shattered and, like he'd thought, the monster quickly dissolved after it was gone.

"That wasn't very nice of you to do" Makoto turned back to where the boy was looking at him with a chastising look; he grit his teeth in response.

"That was my friend you just killed, you know?"

When all the boy received was a glare in response, the boy chuckled.

"Well, I guess that wasn't exactly my friend, more like a family member".

He had enough of the boy's sick humor. Without hesitation, Makoto swung and took the boy's head off.

Black ichor splattered as his body limply fell to the ground. Wiping the sweat from his brow, the teen moved to leave the construction site.

"Are you a barbarian of sorts who can't speak properly?"

The boy was back again, head on his shoulders, sitting on top of one of the steel beams that had impaled his 'family'. There was no trace of his corpse on the ground next to Makoto.

The boy chuckled when he received no response, "Seems like so. Oh well, we'll have to have a nice chat some other time". He tilted his head in what could have been a thoughtful pose, "Actually, now that I get a better look at you, let's have a small chat now".

Makoto expected the mysterious boy to jump down next to him, never expecting him to simply appear next to him. It wasn't like he was moving faster than the blunet could track; he existed in one place for a moment, then another in the next.

The teen watched as the youngster poked and prodded, peering deeply into his eyes, "Hmmm... More than enough Death, in good shape, and..."

Makoto swatted his arm away causing the pinstriped kid to chuckle, "...just the right amount of spunk".

Backing away, he nodded to himself, "Yep, I've decided". Pointing straight at the blunet, he continued, "You're the one I've chosen".

Without warning, the child vanished from view. Makoto had enough time to blink before a searing pain exploded from his left shoulder blade. Blood flew out of his mouth as he gasped, hatchet falling to the ground from the shock. Gritting his teeth, the blunet barely kept himself from screaming out in agony.

And, just as quickly as it began, the pain subsided, leaving only a dull ache that permeated every bone in Makoto's body. Collapsing onto his knees, the teen desperately forced air back into his lungs.

"And we're done here". The boy reappeared, wiping invisible dust off his hands, "Oh, looks like you've lost more blood that I thought you would have. Oops, my bad".

With that statement, the adrenaline rush keeping Makoto on his feet wore off and he almost collapsed from the pain he was feeling. There were several long cuts on his body that were draining away precious lifeblood.

"This would be the part where I'd tell you 'to try to stay alive'". The boy vanished mid-sentence, "But I don't think that'll be happening..."

...

"... This time".

* * *

Right as midnight struck, they heard it; the sound of something collapsing from the harbor side part of Port Island.

They sprinted out into the alley way only to nearly scream at what they saw.

Hamuko nearly broke her flip phone as she mashed '119'. Yukari ran over to check if Makoto, seemingly drowning in a pool of blood from numerous wounds on his upper body and back, was still alive.

* * *

 **A/N: So that's that. Let me know how this chapter was, as its more in line with how the first chapter was compared to the second.**

 **Edit: So the end of this chapter got changed a bit. The change will be fully realized in the next chapter.**


	4. Ch 4: Backstep Blitz

**A/N:**

 **ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION**

 **Okay, now that I hopefully have your attention, go back and read chapter 3. More specifically, read the ending scene between Makoto and Pharos again. There's been some changes to it that will make this chapter make more sense.**

 **Again, read that part of Chapter 3 again or you will have no idea what is going on in this chapter.**

 **...**

 **Soo... Have you read Chapter 3 again?**

 **Yes?**

 **Good.**

 **Let's get onto the chapter**

* * *

She hated Tatsumi Port Island Medical Center. In fact, if it wasn't for the hand rubbing circles into her back, she would have bolted straight for the exit; best friend in critical condition be damned.

The smell of disinfectant, coffee, and blood hung low in the air and stuck to her.

"H-Hamuko... Hey, Hamuko?"

Barely, she registered Yukari trying to gain her attention. The brunette was unknowingly fighting against memories for the red-eyed teen's focus.

Hamuko murmured illegibly in response, unable to lift her gaze from the floor.

"You're really pale. Are you sure you don't need to get checked out?" Yukari spoke in a hushed whisper. It was almost two in the morning and they were in a hospital, she didn't know how either of them hadn't passed out yet from a combination of stress and exhaustion.

With uncharacteristically jerky movements, Hamuko pulled her phone from her pocket and looked at her reflection in the small mirror on the front of it.

The face that stared back at her was one that she hadn't seen in ten years. Or was it eleven or twelve? It didn't matter in retrospect.

It was the face of a young girl. A young girl with a family. A family in the wrong place at the wrong time. The wrong place being a street; the wrong time being right after suppertime.

An argument between two rival yakuza gangs dissolved into a firefight; as her life dissolved before her eyes in the crossfire.

She'd stopped visiting her parent's graves years ago; it'd stopped being painful well before even that.

She'd stopped cashing the "mysterious checks from an unknown address" last year once she found a proper job.

"Hamuko!?" Yukari questioned with a greater sense of desperation.

"I'll be fine" She mumbled out, sliding her phone back into her pocket.

The brunette nearly squeaked when Hamuko rested her head on her shoulder, their sides pushed up against each other.

"I-I... just need some sleep".

The door to the operating room Makoto Yuki was currently in opened; a surgeon walking out while peeling off a pair of bloody gloves and a face mask.

Hamuko sat up straight as a rod and asked the question she'd been dying to ask.

"H-How is he?"

The man looked them over for a minute before letting out a heavy, ragged breath; he looked extremely sleep deprived. "Were you two girls the one that found him?"

"Yes". Yukari stared at Hamuko as she spoke. For a girl that was moments from falling asleep, she was displaying an odd amount of concern for the mute brunet. "Please. I-I just need to know how he is…"

For a moment, something that looked like pity surfaced on the surgeon's face before it was crushed under cold professionalism.

"Miss… When Yuki-san got here he'd already lost a large quantity of blood and…" The man tampered off, looking to the side and clearly attempting to find his words. "When we opened him up, there was significant internal bleeding as well as an unnatural level of stress on his muscles and bones".

Before either of the brunettes could react to the information, the man suddenly bowed before both of them.

"We couldn't save him". _"We couldn't save them"_

Hamuko froze at the surgeon's words, her vision swimming as reality overlapped with memory. She needed to leave; it didn't matter where she ended up sleeping tonight.

She needed to leave the hospital.

Shakily rising to her feet, Hamuko didn't meet her fellow brunette eyes as she stumbled towards the exit; ignoring the intern that walked past her with a clipboard and paperwork.

Yukari shook herself out of her shock as she sprang to her feet after her suddenly unstable friend, "Hamuko!"

The brunette in question threw open a door before collapsing to her knees. Running up behind her, Yukari gripped her arms tightly and looked into her blood-red eyes.

"Hamuko, please… What's wro"

If not for her raging emotions, Hamuko would have lashed out against her crush. How could she ask what was wrong when she just had her old friend bleed out on an operating table?

Oh, that was right. She'd never mentioned what her circumstances were to the brunette.

She'd never mentioned that this wasn't the first time she'd been forced to spend a night at the hospital only to find out a loved one hadn't survived a surgery.

Balling her fists as hard as she could manage, she threw her arms around Yukari and did something she hadn't been able to do in years.

She wept.

* * *

Jerking suddenly, Makoto winced as he slammed his head against something solid. The world spun painfully as he slumped down on something smooth and soft.

Rubbing the growing lump on his head, the blunet quickly realized he was sitting on his bed; that he'd smashed his head against one of the walls in his room.

His room.

 _His_ room.

 _His. Room._

Disbelief painted clearly across his face, Makoto got up and left his room; only now realizing that he was carrying his fire axe.

Out in the hallway was the same, small coffin, denoting the small child he'd figured was on their way to the bathroom that night.

Stepping out into the night, the alleyway outside of the orphanage was painted by the bright light of the full moon just like that night.

Just like that night.

As Makoto was about to question why he was experiencing the worst case of déjà vu he'd ever had, pain erupted out from his left shoulder. Crippling pain forced him to his knees.

With the pain came the memories of _that night_.

Fighting more of those monsters, attempting and failing to save that woman, the fight with the massive monster, and his brief interaction that boy that seemingly couldn't die. It all came back to him in a waterfall of moments and flashes. It burned the scenes into his memory; written in pain and torment.

Heavy, labored breaths managed to get Makoto back onto his feet. He took a moment to stabilize both himself and his thoughts.

If this _truly_ was that night, if he somehow managed to back to the beginning of that night, then that meant…

The blunet came to the startling realization and quickly spun on his heel just as the same black hand forced itself over his face.

* * *

 **A/N: So, now that I've managed to possibly crush your souls and confuse the ever living hell out of you in the chapter, how did you all enjoy your summers?**

 **In all honesty, I'm glad to be back in college; it means that I can have a humane schedule and not be guilted into working 7 days a week.**

 **Damn me and my greed T_T**

 **Anyways, there's a good chance that they're will be updates more often this fall. I really do need to get back into my other works though; inspiration be damned.**


	5. Ch 5: Double Down

**A/N: I suppose I should have really mentioned this before, but I guess now is as good of a time as any to make this pretty brutally apparent.**

 **Makoto will not be summoning a Persona in this iteration of him. Never.**

 **And now, back to your regularly scheduled madness. Suffering or riot!**

* * *

Once again, the return to consciousness was a slow and painful experience for Makoto. The same thing that attacked him was dragging him towards the construction site that was doubling as an execution ground tonight.

Wincing as the memories rushed back to him, the blunet realized just how little time he had left. Tightening his grip on the hatchet, he reached up and grabbed the thing dragging him. It turned around just in time for the fire axe to shatter its mask.

Dusting himself off, Makoto dusted himself off before running up to the entrance of the half-finished building; passing the man that was again far beyond his aid. Taking the stairs two at a time, he took a quick look around the second story, seeing no sign of the giant monster from before.

Rushing back up the stairs, the blunet reached the fourth floor of the building.

The man and woman were still alive; the woman off on his left was fine despite the two things restraining her. Seeing the man on his right only moments away from receiving the fatal wound to his neck that he had previously, Makoto sprinted forward.

Throwing himself, the blunet knocked the man out of the monster's grasps; barely managing to block the knife from cutting him open. Quickly getting back to his feet, Makoto noted that the hatchet had another notch in it.

Thankfully, it held when he cut the first monster to lung at him in half. Grabbing the man's forearm, Makoto pushed him back as the monster with giant, shadow claws rushed forward.

The blunet managed to jerk the fireaxe up as the attack rattled him to the bone.

Silver eyes widened as he was lifted off his feet and flung head over heels.

The monster had wrapped a claw between Makoto's hands around the hatchet; flinging him like a ragdoll with barely a flick of the wrist.

The two wrestled for control; his shoes sliding on the unfinished floor's surface as the monster jerked and twisted.

The monster, seemingly done with playing around, pulled the blunet off his feet, swinging him around in a circle, before throwing him into a plywood wall. The wood only barely held as Makoto fell to the floor; wheezing in an attempt to catch his breath.

"KID!" The man shouted suddenly, running up to where the teen was lying on his side. "Come on, kid! You need to get up!"

Groggily, he worked his way up to his knees, only to knock the man down as the monster once again rushed them.

Makoto brought the hatchet up to block the attack, only to nearly scream as the claw broke straight through the wooden handle and cut a thin line along his right side.

The fire axe had taken to many hits to the same place and the glued-together wood had failed under repeated stress.

Now, with only the remains of the handle housing the head of the axe, Makoto crushed the thing's mask. It dissolved into black gunk, the blunet watching as he panted into the ground.

"K-Kid" The man spoke shakily, as he worked his way to his feet, "There's no more of those things; I think we're in the clear".

He froze.

Looking left and right, there was no sign of anymore monsters around them. The scent of blood hung low in the air right below the complete silence that pervaded everything.

Until a slow thump broke it.

And a second.

And a third.

The two males turned to the source of the sound, only to find the woman from before.

With a knife poking out from between her rib cage after it'd been evidently stabbed through her spine.

She didn't say a word, didn't even breath; only watched to two as her eyes glazed over and she collapsed onto the ground. Her blood slowly spilled onto the ground, alongside the blood of the other victims that Makoto had no chance to save in the first place.

The older man doubled over as he vomited profusely. He fell onto his knees, gagging, in a way that was almost similar to the blunet's first night.

Except his first night wasn't on top of a half-finished building, surrounded by bodies.

Except his first night didn't have a long, black hand with another dagger in it curving around a steel beam towards him.

Silver eyes widened as he could only watch when the weapon slammed into the completely defenseless man, decapitating him instantly.

His blood mixed in with the vomit he'd already layered in front of him and, as he resisted the urge to gag, Makoto ran up in an act of vengeance, cutting the limb straight off.

The black limb twisted as the dagger bounced across the ground out of sights and into the shadows. It convulsed for a moment before being rapidly recalled back to where he assumed the monster was.

And it didn't wait long to reveal itself. The monstrosity slowly walked out of the darkness and stood between him and the edge of the building.

The full moon, still a sickly yellow with a green backdrop, looked down upon the two of them as the blunet gripped the remains of his hatchet in one hand.

The severed limb flailed uselessly alongside the other armed arms.

He was thankful, briefly, that he'd already removed one from the fight. The monster was between him and the unstable scaffolding that had been so vital to the original fight.

Just then, almost as if to spite him, the arm grew back. Dagger and all.


	6. Ch 6: Maniacal Machinations

**A/N: And we're back. Sorry for the wait everyone; XCOM 2 came out and I recently got a job, so I haven't had much free time to write as I'd like.**

 **Even still, I want to thank you all for the stupidly massive amount of support Alone in this World has gotten in the form of favorites, follows, and reviews. This fic is by far the fastest growing one on my account, so please let me know if you want to see more of Makoto being more of less tortured.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The monster didn't waste a moment, three more arms flowing out and converging to where he'd stood only a moment ago. But he'd seen them coming this time and lunged out of the way. The concrete floor practically exploded from the impact and Makoto immediately cleaved all three of them to pieces.

And again, the three severed limbs retracted back to the main body, where they promptly regenerated back to their full length.

Scowling, the blunet ducked behind a steel beam and peaked above it to watch the monster. It seemed content to stare straight back at him, the majority of its body completely still though its twitching arms and hands belied its eagerness.

And he didn't have to wait long before more arms lashed out, their weapons trained on various vital points on his body. Sprinting for the part of the roof where steel beams were already set in place to support the next level, Makoto barely made it behind the closest one before a dagger slammed into it. The metal groaned as the weapon scrapped across its surface, but held otherwise.

Five more daggers cut through the steel, coming at it like a massive saw, and the heavy girder gave one final horrible shriek before it collapsed away from the wide-eyed blunet. Snapping out of his daze, he jumped back as the monster committed more and more of its limbs to the assault. Slapping one weapon away with his axe, he winced as he felt another tear straight through his jacket and draw a shallow line of blood.

Falling further back into the half-complete framework, Makoto breathed heavily as his grip tightened around his broken fire axe. He knew that attacking the arms was pointless now and that he needed to attack the mask directly to do any lasting damage to the monster. But, he had no idea what to do this time. Last time, he'd managed to disable several limbs and been lucky enough to catch the monster by surprise. It didn't look like he was going to be able to repeat either of those feats.

Backing behind yet another girder, he checked that the monster was following him. It was, slowly maneuvering itself through the forest of steel until it was in the middle of this section of the roof.

Apparently running out of patience, it sent another chain of attack against his cover, shredding it enough that the steel fell like a tree. Makoto sprinted towards the side the attack came from and the monster's limbs bent impossibly to follow.

Both combatants were paused as the girder fell directly on top of the moving limbs, trapping them underneath. Despite the monster's struggles to free them, the blunet noted that the limbs weren't moving at all and rushed forward.

Two limbs rose to literally cut him off and he grit his teeth as he dodged one and blocked the other. It had enough force behind the strike to make his bones creak in protest, but Makoto stepped past it and continued his path towards his target.

A glint in the corner of his eyes was all the warning he got before three dagger-wielding hands went through the place his head was a moment ago. Unable to control their momentum, they implanted themselves in a concrete pillar and stuck themselves in as Makoto slid underneath.

Rushing forwards, the last four limbs the monster had to use collapsed on the blunet. He redirected the first into the concrete floor at his feet, winced as the second tore across his back, and knocked the third into the fourth so it cut both its arms off.

Before it could regenerate its lost limbs, Makoto grabbed his axe with both hands and slammed it down on the monster's mask.

The thing screeched in pain and thrashed its whole body in an attempt to free itself. But none of the trapped limbs moved, their steel and concrete constraints preventing it from gaining any leverage. A wall collapsed and buried the two regenerating limbs.

Grabbing the mask in his left hand, the blunet brought the fire axe back down on the same exact place his first attack landed. And he followed it up with a third attack. And a fourth. And a fifth.

He only barely noticed when his weapon finally fully gave out on him, the head of it shattering into shards of various sizes. Picking up the largest of them, Makoto stabbed it against the steadily forming crack in its mask; ignoring the cut forming on his palm.

When the shard broke again, he threw it away and placed one foot firmly against the mask.

The monster could only watch as he leveraged his entire body weight into fully opening up the crack and rip half the mask fully from its face.

Black ichor sprayed into the air as the monster gave out one last, ear-splitting screech. Makoto simply stood stock still as it rained down on him, weakly dropping the mask as it and the monster slowly began to dissolve.

The construction site was an absolute mess, with the majority of the steel trusses destroyed in the fight. From the creaking he was beginning to hear, there probably wouldn't be much of a building left after the night was over.

Still, the blunet ignored the destruction and, unsuccessfully, tried to ignore the corpses as he stepped back out into the full moon's light.

He felt like utter shit, though he wasn't bleeding nearly as much as he was last time he noted. His clothes were still mostly in one piece, though he could feel blood dripping out of the fresh wound on his back.

Not seeing the boy at all, he began to limp down the stairs.

* * *

It wasn't an uncommon occurrence to wake up in the middle of the night for her. Years of the younger orphans coming to her in the dead of the night after having a nightmare or in need of help finding the bathroom had make it almost a habit for Hamuko.

Granted she didn't exactly have to help the kids out anymore, but still found herself awake in a mostly dark-room only illuminated by the full moon.

Yukari was still fast asleep next to the brunette, her peaceful breaths a stark contrast to how she was when she showed up at her door several hours earlier. According to her, she'd grabbed her duffel bag after finding the latest man her mother had brought home passed out on their living room couch practically naked.

Hamuko had been more than willing to let her best friend stay the night, despite the fact that she was simply running away from problems that would only grow and come to a head later on.

But, for now, those worries were miles away. At moment, the red-eyed girl's biggest concern was making sure she didn't get caught watching her crush sleep.

Her carefree sleep watching shattered when it sounded like something exploded outside. Snapping to her feet immediately, Hamuko raced over to where her phone was as opened it.

The time was 12:01 AM but more importantly, she hadn't received an alert that an earthquake had just occurred.

Back on her futon, Yukari sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

She wanted to just dismiss this as just something that hadn't occurred and just return to the warmth and comfort of her bed. But, something gnawed in her stomach; something that told her to get outside right that moment.

Throwing on her slippers, her school jacket, and pocketing her keys, she raced out of her apartment and down the stairs; barely hearing her fellow brunette's startled exclamations from her sudden exit. Exiting the main lobby of her building and stepping out onto the alley to stood next to, Hamuko fought the urge to shiver as she noticed how deathly quiet it was outside.

Looking to the left and to the right without seeing anything, she almost went back inside when the sound of uneven footsteps reached her ears.

Turning to look at direction they came from, she froze as she watched an all-too familiar blunet limp out of the intersecting alleyway mostly covered in blood.

For a brief moment, her vision overlapped the sight of her old friend with that of a young child whose dark blue hair was still matted with blood they'd been unable to fully clean out and silver eyes that looked completely lifeless.

Her flashback ended as Yukari yelped in surprise from behind her at the sight and Hamuko quickly out her phone to dial 119 as the blunet collapsed on the stone brick alley.

* * *

He couldn't see anything definite for a while; a mishmash of vague shapes and voices plaguing his senses for an amount of time he couldn't be sure of.

But, it slowly began to clear. Not at all at once but, slowly and surely, the fluid shapes faded and the buzz of background noise vanished.

And, to end it all, he felt safe now. Something soft and supportive was underneath him, for one, but one by one he was slowly regaining his bearings. Barely managing to force his eyes open, Makoto could barely make out whatever it was his fuzzy vision was seeing. But, for some reason, he could almost swear it was blue, though more like the color of velvet than any other shade.

As his senses sharpened, the blunet thought he could hear music of some kind. A long-noted melody that was easy on his ringing ears, but still gave off a feeling of power.

Then his vision fully cleared and was then promptly filled with the last face he'd ever want to see.

The boy in pinstripe pajamas looked at him, whistling out his tone in an almost mocking manner. Realizing that he was now finally cognitive, the child looked at him with a maniacal smile.

"Oh, good you're awake. I'm sure you're just _dying_ to know what's going on, aren't you?"

* * *

 **A/N: *Maniacally laughs***


	7. Ch 7: Rude Awakening

**A/N: So, out of the kindness of my heart, I decided to get this update out to you all sooner rather than later. Wouldn't want to leave a chapter on a cliffhanger for several months, now would I?**

* * *

Any sense of comfort or relief he had at waking up alive in a hospital room fled from him as he looked back at the monster in pajamas staring back at him. The dread that filled his stomach felt like a lead weight sinking through his body, permeating his veins and circulating through his blood.

"You want answers, right?" He said, that same smile persisting, " _Why am I alive? Who are you?_ You're thinking those things, aren't you?"

Makoto wanted to do something. He wanted to nod his head; he wanted to tell the little shit to go to hell. But he couldn't, his body was still unresponsive from however long he was out for.

Taking his silence as permission to continue, the boy sighed and sat back on his chair, "Well, I have some questions for you. _Who are_ you? _What makes you so special?_ "

The blunet just stared blankly back at the child's questions.

"Oh don't give me that look. Do you know how many people that Shadow Mantis killed before you got to it? It killed twelve people before you put it down. Men and woman, able-bodied and weak. And when you got to it? You practically ripped it apart!"

He looked ecstatic, disturbingly enough, to talk about that first, horrible night. Silver eyes narrowed at the child's sparkling ones.

"And then you went back to your everyday life like nothing ever happened. But, you know now, right?" Makoto's skin crawled as the kid leaned in close to look deeply into his eyes, "You can't escape this. _This_ isn't something you can just run away from."

"When I saw you kill the Magician for the first time, I thought to myself: _'What is it that makes this kid so special?'_ So, why, do you fight? Is there someone so precious to you that you'd fight tooth and nail to survive long enough to see them for another day? Because if there is someone like that…"

The child looked away from him again and closed his eyes.

"Forget about them. The End is coming; and coming soon. If you want to have any chance of even seeing the End, you'd best put any heroic notions out of your brain; they'll just get in the way. You have the stubbornness and will to live through this, but that'll only be if you selfishly preserve your own life. From now on, you'll need to focus entirely on making sure you survive."

He opened his eyes again and the smile returned in full force.

"But, you should consider yourself lucky that I found you when I did. I gave you something that'll help you survive."

Makoto's eyes widened as he felt whatever he'd done to his shoulder flare up.

"That's right; I gave you a Death Counter. It's already helped you live in a situation where you should have died, so there's no need to thank me. But, since I'm such a kind wandering spirit I'll explain how it works."

He held up a hand with all of his fingers down, "The Death Counter starts at '0'. Each time you die, I'll take you back to the beginning of the second to last _transition_."

At seeing the blunet's confused face, the kid only sighed, "The beginning and the end of _that time_ are both _transition points_. When you die during _that time_ , you'll wake up in your bed the previous morning. When you die after _that time_ , you'll wake up where you were when _that time_ starts. Something else to keep in mind is this: You won't be the only one to remember what happened before you die. _Whatever_ kills you will remember what happened before as well. Got that?"

Mutely nodding his head, Makoto watched as he raised one finger, "You've already died once thus far, so the Death Counter is currently at '1'. If the Death Counter reaches '4', well…"

The child's head lowered and a shadow covered the top of his face, "I won't mince my words here…"

When the blunet could see his face again, he recoiled back in shock. _Whatever_ it was looking back at him, _this_ was the monster underneath the pajamas.

" **Your soul is mine."**

The shadows of the room practically pooled around whatever it was looking at him now. It rose up off the ground and floated above him.

It was almost hard to look at it, as the bone-white jaws of the beast were the only real distinct parts of it. The rest of its body would have probably been in the form of a long, tattered black cloak, but eleven balls of static made it look more like it was on a television with bad reception than in reality.

" **I will warn you now, young man. The First Rider is already on his way, and the Other Three follow closely in his wake. This world will not last as it is; you are the only human I have met thus far that has been able to survive for more than one night. And I have been watching for a very,** _ **very**_ **long time."**

Makoto's eyes were still as wide as ever, but he managed a slow nod of understanding.

" **Fight and survive, Makoto Yuki, for you do not want to find out what it is like to have your soul forcibly torn from your body."**

And with that, the monster vanished from his room.

* * *

Filling out paperwork far past the time when his shift ended was just another long, caffeine-dependent night for Officer Kurosawa. The station was empty and dark, except for the corner office he worked in and one further down the hall from a rookie that had picked the short straw when it came to organizing the day's paperwork.

It was an awful week to have quit smoking; what with the public demanding answers for the previous month's string of brutal murders and politicians demanding results in order to save face. All in all, it was a rather shit week to be a public servant and Kurosawa patted his chest pocket for the third time that night, only to lower his hand after hitting nothing but himself.

Signing off on the last of his pile, the officer looked over at the small, digital clock placed on his desk.

 _11:58 PM_

He went to stand and leave for the night, only to freeze as he nearly knocked a file that he'd requested when he'd started the mountain of paperwork several hours ago. Siting back down, Kurosawa brought the police file on Makoto Yuki to the center of his desk.

The very first piece of paper in the file was an update the hospital he was being housed in stating that he was still in a coma after the life-saving surgery he'd received.

He was, at the moment, the sole survivor of the recent attacks. And he didn't think for a moment that whoever was responsible for this wouldn't be after him again if he woke up.

The next sheet was the initial post-surgery report done by the hospital's surgeon. Multiple slash wounds, bruising, heavy blood loss; all signs that the poor kid had had the shit beaten out of him before the attempted-murder took place.

He skipped the next sheet, already knowing the knowing the testimony from the two teenage girls that found him as he'd done it personally.

He skipped the orphanage matron's testimony on his behavior and actions on that night.

Skipped the school records and multiple complaints against him for his inability to speak.

And then Kurosawa nearly dropped the file in shock. 1999, both parents dead, explosion on the Moonlight Bridge. Their time of death? Midnight. The kid had survived that too, being found unconscious but still covered in blood.

This was...

His hand shook as he placed the open file on his desk. Were all of these incidents done by the same people who bombed Tatsumi Port Island's high school and the Moonlight Bridge? Were all of the murders done as a distraction, as a _cover_ to hide away a _single_ killing underneath all of the violence?

The officer snapped out of his musings as the phone on the rookie's desk rang and he picked it up.

Returning to his thoughts, he mulled it over again. Did Makoto Yuki see something as a child that someone wished he hadn't seen? Or, was the decade-old killer simply returning to finish the job whatever that might have been?

"Kurosawa-san, sir!"

He rose to his feet as the man called out to him from his desk.

"It's the hospital, Makoto Yuki has regained consciousness."

* * *

 **A/N: Here we go.**


	8. Ch 8: Bread Trails

**A/N: And here's yet another update for you all. I hope you all didn't get comfortable with how that last chapter went, because this here is where the downward spiral begins.**

* * *

Long, sterile hospital hallways were practically burned into her memory at this point. The harsh stench of blood, piss, and shit all masked under a thick layer of disinfectant was only enough to barely pique her notice before being ignored, unlike the brunette walking beside her who was attempting to hide how badly it was affecting her.

He was alive, and, thanks to a call she'd received after class that day, she knew he was awake. Although, with what the news said of the incident, when he was going to be 'well' again was largely up in the air.

Coming up to where his room was, she noted the four new security guards stationed outside of his door with a raised eyebrow. The one directly next to the door eyed them for a moment before stepping aside without a word.

Hamuko reached for the doorknob, only for it to open from the inside.

"Aristato…" Officer Kurosawa appeared from within the room, slowly shifting his gaze over the two brunettes standing before him, "Takeba, it's good to see you two again." Holding the door for them, Hamuko led the way further in.

The hospital room opened up, revealing the cold, blank stare of one Makoto Yuki. One alive, breathing, and not covered in his own blood Makoto Yuki; the sight was one that gave her such as sense of relief that it took everything she had to not run up and hug the blunet.

Instead, she smiled brightly before walking up to his side. "Makoto…" She could feel a single tear fall but didn't bother to wipe it away in favor of grabbing one of his hands, "Y-you're alive…"

"According to the chief surgeon," Kurosawa spoke up as he reached the foot of the bed, "he just barely survived the surgery. If his body was in any worse condition, or if he'd lost any more blood…"

 _We'd have held a funeral for him_ was what went unspoken.

"I guess that explains why Makoto-kun was out for so long, huh?" Yukari spoke up for the first time, watching her best friend carefully as her face contorted in response to officer's implications.

He watched impassively as the kid's eyes changed from their vacant stare for the first time since he awoke. "Ah," Kurosawa realized the kid was giving him a questioning stare, "I guess no one's mentioned it, but you've been out for nearly a month."

"Twenty-nine days, to be exact" Hamuko added, patting his hand in what she hoped was a comforting manner.

The patient's eyes widened slightly at the news, before his face returned to a more solemn look.

"But, that doesn't matter!" The red-eye girl smiled, grabbing his attention, "What matters is that you're alive and well; we can worry about catching you up in school later."

"Unfortunately, that's not exactly the case." Patting his breast pocket with a sigh, Kurosawa looked directly at the boy, "I have some bad news and some good news."

The three teens waited silently as the man walked over to the window.

"The bad news is that Yuki here is currently under suspicion for about two dozen counts of first degree murder, along with destruction of property, theft, and a few other miscellaneous charges."

Silence ruled for a moment, before it was shattered completely.

"… what!?" Hamuko shot to her feet, hands clenched into fists, "What the fuck!?"

Completely unfazed by the outburst, the officer turned back to the teens, "Some political big-shot brought in a prosecutor from Tokyo to take over the investigation. The bastard started to build a case with Yuki here as the prime suspect last week."

Biting her lip, the brunette sat back down after she noted that the man clearly had more to say.

"The good news is that the only physical evidence we have points to Yuki being a victim. Unfortunately, that means that it also proves that he was at the scene of the crime during the time of the killings."

"That doesn't make any sense." Yukari put in, staring at the floor.

"Nothing about this case makes any sense. Disregarding the fact that none of the times of death on any of the victims line up with the last time they were seen, the only weapon recovered from the crime scene was a fire axe reported stolen about a week before the killings. Yuki's finger prints are all over it along with his own blood. I had the remains of the weapon processed immediately, but the examiner found no other traces of blood on the head of the axe. The only explanation that it points to is that he used the weapon to defend himself from whoever is behind these attacks."

"So why…" She spoke up from beside the bed, her quiet tone only barely containing her anger, "Why is he being charged with murder?"

"Because the public demands closure for this case" He stared back at the shaking brunette, "And a _proper_ investigation isn't going to give the public what they want. The weapon that Yuki used is one of the only pieces of physical evidence, beside the bodies, that we were able to recover from that destroyed construction site. I don't know what you've heard from the media, but it was an absolute bloodbath. I had to send home most of my officers because they were so physically sick."

"And what are we supposed to do? Sit around and do nothing while he gets railroaded?"

"For now, yes, that's what you're going to do." Kurosawa stared down the glaring brunette, "This case will make it to the courts soon. When it does, I'll be able to easily prove Yuki's innocence with a single piece of evidence: that the wounds on Yuki and the other victims were not caused by the fire axe in his possession. If we're lucky, it'll end there. If we're not lucky, people may start to come after Yuki with misguided senses of vengeance."

"What?" Yukari exclaimed, "You think people would do that?"

He nodded, "Like I said before, the public wants closure for this case. It doesn't matter whose head goes on the chopping block, they just need to see someone take the blame for all this. And if the courts 'fail' to provide that closure for them, someone'll take matters into their own hands. Whether that means something personal, or if a third party like the yazuka" Hamuko went stock-still at this statement, "would get hired is up in the air."

Sighing, Kurosawa walked back to the foot of the bed, "The point is, Yuki will most likely be targeted at some point. And with all the political pressure going around right now, assigning a police escort to him won't be approved. I had enough trouble getting permission for four officers to be assigned to protect this case's sole witness; something that's going to get revoked once I report that he suffered extreme shock and has no recollection of the massacre at this time."

"So, Makoto is just going to be left on his own?" Hamuko asked, looking between the silent blunet and the officer.

"Officially, my hands are completely tied at the moment. Unofficially, I'd say that if there happened to be someone who was constantly near him and they happened to know how to fight, I'd leave him in their hands."

"Wait, are you talking about…" Yukari trailed off, looking down at her fellow brunette.

Kurosawa nodded, "Have you ever wondered why Aristato here is allowed to live on her own? I'll give you a hint: it has nothing to do with her age, and more to do with the switchblade in her back pocket."

The brunette froze at that, watching as the man sighed and started walking to the door.

"Don't trouble the doctors too much now, you three."

And without a word of goodbye, he left. Turning to where she was still sitting frozen by his side, Yukari eyed the blunet before speaking, "We'll talk about that later, okay? What matters right now is that you're still alive."

Nodding, she appeared to brighten up slightly at those words, "Yeah, don't worry about it."

His silver eyes bore into hers, showing no relief at her statement.

"I'll protect you if anything tries to hurt you."

With nothing else to respond with, he nodded.


	9. Ch 9: Around the Bend

"So…"

Hamuko let out a sigh as she realized she wouldn't be able to push this conversation off any longer. She did silently thank her fellow brunette for holding off on the interrogation until they were back in her apartment. They'd left the hospital shortly after Kurosawa left, letting her old friend get some more rest after everything that had been said in that conversation.

"Well? Are you going to explain what Kurosawa-san was talking about or are you going to keep leaving me in the dark here?"

Wincing at the not-so-subtle jab that'd been directed at her, Hamuko looked up at Yukari from her position kneeling on the floor. Banishing the thought that this wasn't how she wanted to be on her knees as it came to her mind, she took a deep breath before opening her mouth.

"Have you ever wondered why, despite the fact that it's located in the middle of a rather rough area, the orphanage hasn't been vandalized or threatened?"

Taking the shaking of her head as a response, she continued, "Well, a couple of months back, a few punks tried to start something by harassing a few of the younger kids on their way back from school. It didn't start out as anything major, but when one of the kids came back covered in bruises, Sanada-san, Aragaki-san, and I decided to confront them."

The standing brunette glared at her friend, who promptly withered, "Oh really, and what happened after that?"

"When we got to where they were, they'd obviously been drinking at the time."

"And…"

"And they challenged us to a fight."

"And?"

"And Sanada-san and Aragaki-san beat the crap out of them."

"And?"

Hamuko averted her eyes and scratched the back of her head, pulling her hand away after feeling the sweat that was lightly covering her scalp.

"Hamuko, I know that's not the end of the story; Kurosawa-san wouldn't have mentioned a knife if you'd just witnesses two of our sempai beating up a few thugs. Speaking of which…"

Trailing off as she walked forward, Yukari reached around her best friend. Hamuko suppressed a squeak as her crush just barely avoided feeling up her backside before locating the switchblade she kept hidden in the small of her back.

Standing back up, this time with the knife in its casing, she fixed the brunette was a hard look as she stared down at her.

"Are you going to explain what this knife has to do with that story or what?"

Desperately trying to regain her composure after the recent close encounter, Hamuko just barely kept herself from yelling as she spoke up, "Because I stabbed a guy with it!"

Yukari managed to catch the knife, and herself, from falling to the ground at the red-eyed girl's sudden exclamation. With wide eyes, she could only stare back at her kneeling friend.

With a faint blush from the look she was receiving, she opened her mouth to finish the story, "One of the guys tried to grab me, so I stabbed him in the arm to get him off me. He didn't die from the wound, before you ask. Anyways, that event got the three of us some notoriety, which is why everyone leaves us alone around here. Hell, it's why _you're_ able to walk around here freely, since they see you with me so often."

With a sigh, Yukari handed the switchblade back to her friend before walking over to the door, "I have to head home for today; we've got a test coming up to study for."

"Right," Smiling, she walked her crush to the door and opened it for her.

The brunette stopped just outside of the doorframe before turning around, "Hey, I probably don't say this nearly enough, but thanks for letting me stay over so often."

"Anytime, Yukari," Swallowing the offer to just move in with her here if she was going to crash here so often, Hamuko instead gave her friend a grin and a wave, "Anytime."

* * *

It was already rather late out, the sun having set hours ago and the night had been well underway by the time Makoto was finally released from the hospital the next day, but that didn't dampen her smile as she walked side by side with the silent blunet back to the orphanage.

Knowing that trying to start a conversation was rather pointless, Hamuko instead started whistling. It wasn't of a band she'd recently heard on the radio or one of the tunes she used to help some of the younger kids fall asleep. It was instead a mishmash of whatever came to her head in the moment, sounding like a wind chime and a clarinet had gotten into a fist fight.

It didn't matter to her. She was just happy that her friend was finally back on his feet.

Reaching the front door of the orphanage, she grabbed the doorknob and turned back to the blunet. He was idly staring up at the sky, lowering his gaze to her once he realized she was looking at him.

"Welcome home, Makoto."

The two entered the building, to the welcoming of all the other children and the matron who had set up a small party in celebration of his recovery.

Outside, as the sounds of laughter and good cheer trickled out of the building, the full moon shone brightly overhead.

* * *

 **A/N: So, this chapter was supposed to be out last week and be longer. But, life kinda sucker punched me out of nowhere and so I had to put this on hold until I got IRL business back under wraps.**

 **Regardless, I'm going to try to keep the AitW updates coming as I've got a lot of things planned for this fic.  
**

 **First on that list is the Priestess Arcana fight, which is going to be next chapter. I hope none of you missed that Makoto had been out for 29 days.**


	10. Ch 10: Home Invasion

**A/N:** **Alright mocasiotorres27, you complained last chapter that we didn't get any Makoto screen time.**

 **So here's 2k words that are all Makoto. You're welcome.**

 **I hope you all enjoy this chapter; you all know what's coming**

* * *

The party had been the only pleasant surprise for Makoto recently. It was nice to see everyone so happy to have him back after waking up from his month-long coma.

Unfortunately, he'd kept one eye on the clock the entire time in anticipation of what was to come. And, as the world shifted after he closed the door, he found the last person he ever wanted in his room already waiting for him.

"So..." Pharos drawled, looking over the space with a bored expression on his face, "This is where you live, huh? How... dull".

He ignored the child's pointless observation in favor of walking over to the open window and shutting it to prevent the smell of blood from entering. The blunet was tired, enough so that he might be able to just sleep through this living nightmare and wake in the morning.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Halfway under the covers, Makoto scowled at the kid for his interruption. Grabbing a pen and paper from his desk, the blunet messily scrawled out ' _Sleeping_ ' before tossing the loose leaf at his face.

Silence ruled the room, long enough that he laid back down on his bed believing that Pharos was done bothering him for the night.

That was until his haunting laughter shattered any sense of peace he had.

"You really are naive, aren't you? In any other situation, I might even find it impressive."

Makoto looked over at where Pharos was staring down at him from his spot on his dresser. Normally, Pharos' whimsical and humored tone would fill him with thoughts of caving his smug, sadistic face in, but this time it only gave him pause. Pushing himself off his bed and onto his feet, the blunet walked up to the kid.

"Oh don't give me that look, I'm not going to spell things out for you" Pharos rested his chin on his palm as he spoke, meeting the silver stare evenly.

Suddenly, the sound of something being dragged against the hardwood flooring outside the room broke the temporary silence.

Suddenly, Makoto's hands felt far, far too empty.

"I hope you can find a weapon soon, my next of kin doesn't seem like she's going to be able to hold back anymore."

Ignoring the boy, he slowly approached the door, pressing his ear against it. The noise outside came to a stop with a sound similar to someone dropping a rug onto wooden floor. Gripping his doorknob with a shaking hand, he slid open the door.

The hall was empty, with nothing in sight as Makoto looked to the left and to the right. Looking down, he stared at what was on the floor.

At fight glance, it looked more like an over sized white ribbon more than anything else. But, after kneeling down and running his hand over it, the material felt more threaded than a singular piece. Surprisingly enough, gripping the fabric and applying force caused a chunk to tear off from the rest.

Returning to his feet, he stared at the material in his hands. What interested him the most, above the interesting weave he could see from the cross section, was the fact that it wasn't dissolving into the black ichor that every monster was a made of. Rolling the fabric around in the palm of his hand, Makoto looked up to where the ribbon was leading to.

Halfway down the hall, it had wrapped itself in a tight coil assuming a box-like shape. Tearing off a section, his eyes widened at the sight of black.

The blunet could feel his stomach drop as he mulled over the current situation. Turning to where the room next to his was located, he forced the door open only to find the coffin lying down in bed entirely covered in white.

The next one he found in the next room was in the same state.

And the one in the bathroom.

And the one in the kitchen.

His heart was hammering away in his chest as his thoughts swarmed. If this _stuff_ didn't dissolve like everything else he'd fought, then that and the fact that every coffin in the orphanage was wrapped in it could only mean that...

"If you've figured it out," Makoto blood went cold as Pharos appeared in front of him, "Then you should stop wasting time. Or don't, I don't mind. After all," The child smiled sinisterly, "I've heard that dying of constriction is a rather interesting way to go."

Clamping down on the urge to hit him, the blunet sprinted out of the room and followed the fabric to where it was converging: in the foyer. He stared at the gap under the door as what looked like black fog slowly floated out, before taking a deep breath and entering.

If his blood went cold before, it practically froze in his veins now. If hadn't spent so much of his life living in the orphanage, he would have never recognized the room he just walked into. Mist covered the walls and floor, the color of it fluctuating between black, gray, and white as it wafted through the air. Where the fireplace should have been, fog poured out of the opening. Crisscrossed over the floor was more of the strange material which, despite overlapping on itself multiple times, all seemed to head towards the ceiling...

Something violently slammed behind him and Makoto jumped around in time to watch the door he entered through be covered in smoke. The blunet reached out for the doorknob, only to press his hands against the mist just before making contact with the wood.

Turning back, he only caught a blur of white before he was lifted off his feet and collided with the wall. Makoto gasped as the air was driven out of his lungs from the force and something wrapping around his neck. Suspended against the wall, he moved to pull off what was constricting him only to have another strand pin his right wrist awkwardly above his head.

A slow, haunting laugh reached him and gave the blunet pause. Looking up, his eyes widened at what was where the ceiling was supposed to be.

At a loss of words for what he was looking at, Makoto could only stare at the rift that had completely occupied the top of the room. Fog poured outwards from its edges, while all the pieces of ribbon traveled into it and converged on its source.

The corrupted visage of a woman slowly lowered her(its?)self down through the portal. The strange material, which the blunete now realized was the monster's hair, wrapped around her arms and legs acting like a makeshift lift. Leveraging himself, Makoto reached out with his left hand and tore through the hair binding him.

Dropping to the floor, he pulled the material off of his neck, staring back at the monster the entire time. She met his gaze evenly, even after he stood up and began circling to her.

He couldn't waste anymore time. When this ended, the hair-like substance evidently wouldn't disappear. And if he couldn't get rid of it before then, everyone in this building sans him was as good as dead. The kids, the matron, Hamuko... all people that were just celebrating his recovery merely half an hour ago would be gone.

Gone overnight...

Gone just like...

Sprinting forward, Makoto ducked under the first strand of hair that would have taken his head from his shoulders, ripping off a piece as it passed over him.

The monster seemed genuinely surprised at his reaction, but not enough to forgo blocking the his first punch on her forearm.

The blunet danced back, darting around the ribbons that lashed out in an attempt to surround him. He desperately needed a weapon, dismantling this monster with his bare hands just wasn't going to work and it was only going to be a matter of time before one of her attacks ripped him apart.

He spotted exactly what he needed out of the corner of his eye, but that distraction diverted his attention long enough that he could only brace himself as the next attack caught him right in the gut. Crumpling as he collided with the corner of the room, Makoto kept his eyes on her as he forced air back into his lungs.

When the next attack came for him, the blunet rolled under the swipe and sprinted forward. He nearly tripped as he reached down, but he recovered in time to destroy the next strand of hair as it flew through the air.

Standing as straight as his battered body currently could, Makoto raised the fireplace's poker straight at the monster. He didn't have much confidence with a sword, there was a reason _she_ was the kendo's team's ace and not him, but he certainly was not a stranger to the weapon type.

The monster surged forward, another wave of hair following her as she reached out in an attempt to snatch him off his feet. The blunet back stepped out of her reach, turning his makeshift weapon on the follow-up and tore through the fabric with short, concise slashes.

Spinning on his heel, Makoto cut into the monster's wrist, black ichor spraying out from the wound.

She screamed in response, her once humored visage now enraged as her 'blood' spilled onto the floor and dissolved. Reaching out with her non-wounded hand, the monster attempted to crush the blunet. He slashed up at her open palm, showering down more ichor before rolling away from the impact.

The other hand grabbed him from behind, what almost sounded like his ribs popping caused him to wince as she lifted him up to her face.

At this point, he almost expected another staring contest.

He didn't expect the temperature of the room to suddenly drop.

Looking up, Makoto could only stare in shock at the sight of icicles forming above him.

He could only barely move his arm, but he managed to slice off a few of his captor's fingers and freed himself. Moments after the blunet rolled away, shards of ice shattered against the floor.

Darting around to her blind spot, he slashed repeatedly at the monster's body. He needed to end this now.

He ripped away another chuck of flesh as he felt another ribbon of hair coil itself around his leg. The monster flung him into a wall, before pulling him off and sending him into another.

His vision spun and darkened, the damage of the impacts finally catching up to him.

This was it. He could feel his body being dragged again to be slammed into another wall. Focusing as much as he could, Makoto stared at the monster as he was flying through the air.

Reaching as far as he could, the blunet plunged the poker straight into her mask as he went by, the metal weapon getting snagged as it fought against the monster's flesh and his momentum.

With a pull, the poker tore through the rest of her face, causing Makoto to awkwardly fall on his side.

She began screaming and, after he get himself onto his feet, he could see why. Her mask was crumbling from the damage it just took, her hands gripping her face in a desperate attempt to literally keep herself together as she began to dissolve.

The black fog around the room twisted as her hair shriveled up and vanished. A dark aura began to flow from her form, her screams becoming more and more disembodied as her physical form vanished.

And in her wake was silence.

Makoto placed the poker back in its rightful place before limping over to the door.

His entire body ached, most of his leg was already numb from the constriction it'd recently been through.

He made it to his bed before he passed out, completely unaware of Pharos' eyes following him the entire time.


	11. Ch 11: Downward Spiral

**A/N: I hope everyone's enjoying their summer, and their winter if you're down in the SH. Anyways, here's an update for you all.**

 **With the last update, this fic broke the 50 follows marker. Thank you all for the support, I may or may not do something to celebrate this, I don't know.**

 **Maybe I'll throw up a poll to see if anyone wants me to actually make something in celebration. Yeah, that sounds about right.**

* * *

He really should have picked another time in his life to quit smoking. A time that didn't involve the amount of stress he was dealing with lately. A time that didn't involve all the political bullshit that was swirling around his town.

Or maybe just a time after he forgot what he was about to do.

Looking up, he easily spotted who he was here for and, when he approached, he didn't hesitate in calling out to him.

"Yuki" He said, drawing the attention of the passing mute, along with a large majority of the nearby students. It wasn't everyday that a cop pulled aside a student after all.

"It's nothing too major," Kurosawa started, giving an even stare to all the teens who'd stopped to watch, most of which didn't return it, "Just some legal garbage to take care of."

He looked at him for a moment, before nodding in understanding.

The cop turned and motioned for him to follow, giving a slight nod to Arisato and Takeba as he left. The two walked down the road before turning a corner, and then another, and another.

They turned down an alley and halfway through it, the mute stopped walking.

Looking back at him, Kurosawa noted the stern, questioning look in his silver eyes and let out a sigh, "Straight to business, huh?"

He patted down his shirt pocket before stopping himself.

"Right, look here Yuki, I'm going to be honest with you here, things aren't looking good for you. I've been pulling as many strings and calling in as many favors as I can the last week or so, but whoever that prosecutor is seems like he's got more than I do. The appeal I sent in to get the case dismissed was rejected. The friend of mine down in the lab got fired just yesterday and I doubt I'm going to be in my position for very much longer," The officer chuckled darkly.

The blunet said nothing in response, verbal or nonverbal.

"Bottom line is this: at some point, I'm not going to be able to keep the political big wigs and the like off your back. You've got your friend Arisato to keep any thugs from trying anything, so you shouldn't have to worry about that. With what time I've got left, I'm going to set up a few things to at least slow down that prosecutor. Hopefully, the case and trial will be delayed long enough that someone with half a brain in their head will come along and throw it out. However..."

Kurosawa took a step forwards, staring straight at the blunet, "There's something else going on here, isn't there?"

To the mute's credit, he only shifted slightly at the question. The cop nodded before continuing, "I've been shifting through every report, every scrap of evidence, on this case and almost nothing of it matches up. People vanishing out of thin air around midnight, times of death that don't logically make sense, unidentifiable wounds, and no witnesses. Something that I've learned from my years as a police officer has taught me that physical evidence cannot lie. It can be fabricated, tampered, removed, and/or destroyed, but it cannot lie. So, if the evidence cannot lie, but it is also not making sense, then what could be happening here?"

He took another step forward.

"Is what is going on here something that defies logic, something that goes against all sense?"

The mute took a half step back as the cop moved even closer.

"Do you know what is going on with this case, Makoto?

With the use of his first name, he couldn't help but flinch and then nod slightly.

The officer backed off before talking again, "I'd guessed as much. But, I'm going to also take a wild guess and say that it's not something that you can explain nor is it something that you could properly prove, yes?"

Another nod.

Kurosawa sighed, fishing into one of his pockets before pulling out a slip of paper, "Here, something to help you out."

Upon seeing the surprise evident on his face, he motioned for him to take the slip, "Well? Come on now, we don't have all day."

The blunet cautiously took the paper and pocketed it. The cop stepped aside before speaking again, "Alright, run along now. It's Saturday, you can worry about that later."

Watching the teen walk out of the alley and disappear around a corner, he couldn't help the self-depreciating laugh that escaped his mouth.

"What a joke, I can't even reassure a kid. That damn politician was right."

He could only hope now that he hadn't just signed his godson's death certificate.

* * *

Despite what he was told, what Kurosawa had said stuck in his mind for the reminder of the day.

So, when midnight hit and the world shifted into its corrupted state, Makoto was already at the dumpster mentioned in the note. Checking around to make sure nothing was going to creep up and take his head off, the blunet cautiously threw open the lid.

Waiting for him at the bottom was a crowbar and yet another note. Grabbing both, the mute took another look around before reading it.

 _This was the best I could smuggle out of our inventory._

 _\- K_

"Oooh, what do you have here?" Whirling around, Makoto came face to face with Pharos.

"It looks like you followed my advice after all," His grin widened, "Even if you weren't really trying to."

He frowned at the mysterious kid, before pointedly turning on his heel and beginning to leave. When he rounded the corner, Pharos was standing there like he'd never left in the first place.

"Now, now, now, I'm not here today just to mock you," He shook his head and held his arms out, "No, I'm here to show you something. Something you're going to want to see."

After what seemed like a bout of aimless wandering around Port Island, Pharos turned to face Makoto as they came to their 'destination'.

The blunet could only look on in silent horror.

"It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you," The kid smiled smugly at the look the mute was giving him, "To the Colosseum."

What was in front of him was, no, what _should_ be Gekkoukan Highschool.

What was actually in front of him was nearly unrecognizable from his normal school. To start off, the gate that normally ran around the perimeter of the ground was completely gone; along with the rows of trees, flowers, and…

Makoto looked around further. All of the usual shrubbery and plant life that were scattered all over the grounds were simply gone like they'd never been there in the first place.

And then his gaze caught onto the building itself.

The structure ahead was clearly far past it's hay-day, with several walls completely crumbled and others well on their way.

He was already slowly walking closer before he could realize what he was doing.

Laughter sounded behind him and he didn't even turn to look at Pharos when he spoke up, "Well, now, no need to feel shy."

Swallowing the lump in the back of his throat, Makoto continued up to the front door.

If you could call a large hole in the outer structure a 'front door', that is. It looked like something had ripped the original entrance apart from the inside out. The steel supporting beams were the only things in this area that were still standing in a vaguely straight-ish way. He winched at the sight of one said beam that appeared to have been ripped in half. Definitely 'vaguely'.

All thoughts on what had happened to the front ceased when the blunet caught sight of the inside of the ruined building.

The name 'Colosseum' was rather apt.

The entire roof was gone, letting the moon cast it's reflected light over the ruins. The topmost sections were only just barely standing, with the available structure widening as one moved closer and closer to ground level where it flattened out into a massive arena floor.

The mute couldn't help himself, he dropped off a ledge and walked out onto the platform.

Without the ceiling, Makoto had a clear view of the waning moon almost directly overhead.

"Isn't it beautiful," Pharos was right behind him without a previous sound, "This is the Colosseum. This is where the End will begin."

He turned and gave the striped shirt wearing child a hard look, daring him to continue.

He shook his head in response, "Oh, don't look at me, I don't have any idea what 'the End' is."

The blunet blinked and Pharos was suddenly directly behind him, "But, I do know that things aren't going to get any easier for you during this time. That last battle, against the woman who needed a serious haircut, don't you think you cut things a little close there? You got lucky and managed to kill her on your first try, but just imagine what a monster like her could have done to you if she'd killed you instead. Imagine what something like that, something that can analyze and plan, would have done with prior knowledge."

It "She-"

Would "-would-"

Have "-have-"

Killed "-crushed-"

Me "-you."

Makoto shivered uncontrollably as his thoughts lined up with Pharos'.

"But," The jaunty look on his face unnerved the mute more than it should have, " _That_ is why we are here! This place is perfect to train yourself. There's no shortage of opponents here and you don't even have to worry about collateral damage. Ah! Speaking of enemies, here comes some now!"

The kid looked over the blunet's shoulder with a smile, before promptly vanishing.

He slowly turned around and stared at the three figures that were approaching him. All three were practically identical, with what looked like light metal armor on their bodies and a rustic brown cloak down their backs. They each carried a thin, light sword in one hand and a small round shield in the other. On their heads appeared to be a helm of sorts, but Makoto could get a good view at it with the telltale mask covering their faces.

He gripped the crowbar tightly in his hands, feeling completely outclassed with his meager weaponry. Kurosawa might have meant well enough, but the mute did exactly what his gut told him to do: run.

Without looking back to see if they were following him, the blunet ran for the other side of the ring. An archway connecting to a dark hallway was the only opening on this side, and thus Makoto took it without thought. Turning to the right, the path opened up into a large corridor with a gradual curve to it that told him it must follow along the outside of the arena.

Slowing his run down to a jog, the mute silently traveled down the dark halls, looking around all the while. Statues of more armored knights lined the path, their weapons varying greatly from simple swords and spears, to more exotic blades and bows.

And then one of the took a step forward out of the shadows, unveiling the mask that covered it's face. He began sprinting again as more of them began to move. The sound of shifting armor and heavy footsteps chased him further, until a massive knight with a shield bigger than Makoto was stepped in his way.

The swarm of foot soldiers closed in when he spotted it. Just off the side of the hall was a doorway with a golden arch surrounding it. Encourage on by the sound of weapons being drawn, he flung open the door and slipped inside.

Upon closing the door behind him, all sound from the hall cut out entirely. Makoto would have thought about it further, if he wasn't currently occupied with what he was looking at.

The stairs he was on led downwards in a large spiral, a quick peak over the edge telling him that he couldn't see the bottom. But his attention on what was below him was suddenly dwarfed by what was directly above him.

A massive rift sprawled out along the ceiling, the mute quickly thinking to himself that he must be looking at the underside of the arena floor, small bolts of lightning crackling around in dark colors along the edges of the distortion. The anomaly itself was seemingly in a state of flux, the border of it almost undefined and whatever was on the other side of it was simply pitch black.

Makoto had scarcely made it down to a level section of stairs when a sound akin to metal being torn to pieces echoed out of the void. Looking up, the mute stared blankly as something was slowly traveling through the rift. It's head made it through first, the upper body dangling freely in the open area as the lower body slowly made it's way through as well.

The figure suddenly dropped down and landed only a few feet from where the doorway was, giving Makoto his first good look at it.

It was a foot or so taller than him, wearing what looked to be a tattered blue cape and equally damaged armor that had long since lost its shine. A helm completely different from the previous knights adorned it's head, casting a shadow over where the mask should have been on it. Like the monster that had attack him at the orphanage, this too was excreting some kind of dark fog. It stood up in a slight hunch with it's right arm raised upward. A moment later, a massive blade dropped into its waiting grip with scarcely a shudder from the monster.

The black fog pulsed before rising up in a flurry, the monster letting out an ear-splitting shriek.

Completely flat-footed on the stairs, Makoto could only barely raise his crowbar in a guard when it lunged down at him.

The strength of the blow lifted the teen completely off his feet and the stairs. His momentary flight ended when he slammed into a pillar that he hadn't even known was there.

He could only stare in shock, the greatsword had nearly cut his crowbar in half with one swing and was now currently the only thing keeping him from falling due to being pinned against the pillar.

The monster suddenly jerked the weapon away, and then Makoto was plummeting into the darkness.

* * *

 **A/N: Say hello to the replacement for Tartarus.**

 **Say hello to the replacement for the Reaper.**


	12. Ch 12: Into the Viper's Den

**A/N: Holy shit I'm actually updating this. Yeah, I know, I suck at being a consistent writer.**

 **But, I may have some good news. I decided to make the horrible decision to enter Alone in this World into NaNoWriMo. Now, unless my life really goes to shit this month, I'm going to try to pump out the 50,000 words for this contest. That's 50,000 words of suffering and despair for you all to enjoy, you sick sick viewers of mine. So, if you love me enough, head on over to their website (just google 'NaNoWriMo' if you've never heard of them before) and show some support for this work or whatever the fuck it is you can do during this thing. I'm a bit new, if it wasn't obvious enough already.**

 **In other news, I put my meager editing skills to work and made a new cover photo for this story. Speaking of which, to Frankly Forgotten and whoever else this might apply to, I've got almost no artistic talent so don't expect anything like that from me. However, if any of you want to make art for AitW out of the goodness of you heart, do let me know. I'll give you a shout out on here and leave a link to your work on my profile if I can. FF is a bit spotty on that end of things.**

 **Regardless, here's what you've all been waiting for:**

* * *

For some time, his entire world was inky blackness accompanied by the sickening sensation of vertigo that had lasted far too long to indicate that this was a _normal_ bottomless pit. The dead air around him rushed against his face and ran through his hair, but it belied no change in his surroundings.

That all came to an end as he slammed into something without warning. Makoto silently cursed as he could feel his entire side turning into one large bruise from the sudden impact. He curled in on himself for a moment, just laying against whatever solid ground was below him and trying to will away the soreness that was now seeping under his skin.

When he felt something brush up against his leg, the mute scrambled back to his feet and stared hard. Where ever he was now, the darkness wasn't like it had been before. This wasn't an inky blackness that came from an absolute absence of light, but rather the smoky kind that came from any source being smothered. Whatever was blocking the light occasionally shifted and warped, allowing thin beams to come down at random. The blunet strained his eyes as far as they could, his pupils dilated to the point where only the thinnest sliver of silver remained, making the rays of light painfully bright. He reached up to keep his messy hair out of the way, only to flinch from the feeling of cold metal touching his forehead.

Somehow, he'd managed to hold onto his crowbar during the fall. Or rather, as Makoto got a better look at it with the help of a sudden beam of light, what was left of it after…

The blunet grasped his head as the memories pummeled him. That _thing_ , with its dulled armor and a sword almost twice his size that it'd swung like it was nothing, pinning him up against a pillar over that inky blackness with nothing more than a broken crowbar separating the blade from his side before retching it away to leave him to the void.

Makoto forced his shaking legs to properly support him once more, letting out a sigh as he spun what was left of his weapon in his hands. At the bare minimum, he'd managed to keep the curved end of the crowbar. It barely gave him any reach over what his arm was normally capable of, but at least it was wickedly sharp. Worst came to worst, he could probably rip the mask of a monster off if one got too close to him. The whole situation was reminding him of that battle against that giant, overgrown spider; the memory bubbling up from the back of his mind in an effort to pull him back to that time. The mute winced and shut his eyes in an attempt to push away the vision, but then he was there.

The remains of his weapon in his hands, looming over an incapacitated foe, _relishing_ the feeling of it squirming and _screaming_ under him as he punctured its mask as **blood** ran down his hands and its _desperate_ attempts to escape because he'd opened up a crack in its visage and he was now using his **hands** to **tear the Sha-**

The blunet violently shook his head to clear his thoughts. He couldn't lose himself in what had happened, because where he was now was far too dangerous to be doing any kind of reminiscing. Focusing, he took a cautious step forward. Again, something brushed up against his leg, only this time whatever it was scurried away immediately. Frowning, the mute took another step ahead, and then another.

His foot must have landed on several of the things, because for a moment his heel wavered as they moved. He could hear them scattering in different directions, but nothing told him what he was dealing with. The thin bits of light were coming down, but they stopped in a ring directly around him. The hair on the back of his head tensed and Makoto could feel the goosebumps shiver along his skin.

Nothing about this was right, even more than before he quickly amended. On either side, his vision was slowly blocked off by something from above and, operating on pure instinct, he threw himself forward to the ground. A rush of air blew over him as a _something_ snapped close behind him. Jumping to his feet, Makoto stared down this latest threat.

His pupils dilated severely at the sight before him. The 'things' that had been crawling all over the floor, the walls, and the ceiling were, in fact, snakes. They were no larger than his arm, but there were hundreds if not thousands of them swarming about; their frenzied movements sending the lighting into disarray. To top it all off, just in front of him was a single one that dwarfed all the others. It's maw alone was larger than he was, with the rest of its body hanging from the shadows of the ceiling. It stared back at him from behind a smooth, skin-tight mask with ornate tribal markings and elegant jewels. The single mar to its visage was the lettering 'IV' which appeared to have been roughly carved into its face. A thin, forked tongue dipped out to taste the air. It opened its jaws to unveil a set of twin fangs from the inside of its upper lip. They were two perfect pieces of ivory that each came together at the end in two wickedly sharp points.

Makoto could feel the sweat dripping down the back of his neck, slowly soaking the simple white t-shirt he was wearing. It's tongue flicked out, tasting the fear in the air.

The Bejeweled Serpent slithered forward, swaying from side to side as it progressed upon the terrified teen. The mute stumbled back, half-tripping over yet another group of mini-snakes in a desperate attempt to get away from the monster that could literally taste how intimidated he was.

It screeched out, unhinging it's massive jaw to allow for its fangs to fully extend before surging forward. Makoto flung himself to the side as it lunged past him, rolling hard on his shoulder as he got back onto his feet and attempted to come up with some kind of plan to kill the damn thing.

The Shadow fully coiled itself up, towering over the blunet, and simply stared at him. More than slightly unnerved, he started to back away into the darkness, only to trip against one of the baby serpents. It seemed to gather some kind of idea from the event, as it let out a low hiss.

One that was echoed by hundreds of its children as they swept over him in a storm of scales. Makoto gasped painfully as they wrapped themselves around his limbs and began to constrict. Grabbing the few he could reach, the mute ripped them off his legs and quickly stood up.

He just barely made it to his feet before they returned and locked his limbs back into place. Gritting his teeth, he stared up at the Bejeweled Serpent which was already charging straight for him.

He couldn't avoid this coming attack. There was no time to pull the snakes off him again and move. Out of options, Makoto decided on the last of his choices.

He gripped what was left of the crossbar and swung it straight forward.

The reinforced iron edge bit into the monster's outstretched fang, cracking the surface from the impact. All of the smaller serpents flinched, allowing the mute to shake them off. They fled into the darkness as he looked back towards the main monster.

It hissed back at him, equal parts fear, confusion, and anger.

Makoto narrowed his eyes at its actions. From what he'd seen thus far, the only target that would elicit such a reaction should have been the mask. But, the meager damage he inflicted upon its fang shouldn't have made it back off. It could have easily eaten him whole while he was distracted by the smaller snakes reactions.

The serpent coiled up again, ending any of the blunet's musings into the topic.

Planting his feet, he let the monster charge straight for him. With both of his hands on his broken weapon, Makoto threw his entire body weight into his attack. The strike landed just off from the previous, the crack in its fang growing from the sheer force of their collision.

This time, however, it didn't back off, but simply barreled through the mute like he didn't exist. Sent sprawling from the impact of the massive monster hitting him, his world spun frantically as he rolled across the floor only to harshly come to a stop against what was most likely a pillar of sorts. Shakily making it to his feet, Makoto watched the Bejeweled Serpent round another pillar as it lined up to charge him again.

With a slight amendment to his previous actions, he gripped the top of his jaw and dug his heels into the ground. The blunet could feel his legs burning from the exertion of simply keeping standing, but the monster hadn't been able to fully wind itself up for this attack.

It came to a complete stop when he jammed the crowbar into the existing wound and began to leverage it harshly. The monster let out an entirely too human scream as Makoto got to work on the fang. He winced as it bellowed straight out of the bowels of the beast, but didn't relent in his actions despite how it felt like his ears were going to burst.

Seemingly sick of the major toothache his was giving it, the serpent arched up his neck before whipping down and slamming the blunet into the floor. He pulled his weapon free and scrambled to gain some distance from the enraged monster.

The glowing slits for eyes narrowed ominously on him and it moved slightly back. Confused at the odd action, Makoto stopped moving to stare back.

Only the corner of his eye caught the serpent's tail speeding towards him. Barely jumping in time, the massive object swept under him catching the bare soles of his shoes. Even a barely glancing blow, it still managed to spin him end over end in the air.

Makoto came to a sudden landing against the cold floor, gasping as his side gained yet another bruise to add to his battered torso.

Gripping the crowbar tightly to attempt to ward off the pain, the mute pushed himself to his knees. The serpent was coming now to finish him off and he mentally screamed at his aching body to get back up.

His legs only barely cooperated, the fatigue from combat catching up to him far faster than he thought it should have. But he still managed to stand, facing down the charging monster.

With a wordless scream, Makoto struck out again. The sharp metal edge hit the serpent's fang, and this time the hollow bone did not hold. Once again knocked off his feet, he slid back with far less pain this time. Something knocked into his leg as his managed to regain his bearings.

It was the severed fang itself.

The owner of said tooth was writhing around on the floor in pain, opening and closing its jaws as it attempted to deal with the waves of agony.

Not bothering to try to find his previous weapon in the dim light, Makoto reached out with one hand and picked up the fang. It was far lighter than its size made him think, beneath the haze of adrenaline churning through his body the fact that it was hollow was probably the reason why, but he didn't care much for that.

No, he only cared that its sharp point was still intact.

And that the monster still had no idea he was on his feet.

Walking up to the Bejeweled Serpent with a deceptive calm, the blunet gripped the top of its jaw and pulled its mouth open.

The monster had only a moment to be shocked by his actions before he lunged forward and buried the broken fang into the roof of its mouth. He pulled it back out, dirty black ichor beginning to pour from the wound just as he brought it back and stabbed it back in.

The monster thrashed weakly, attempting to squirm out of his grip. But he kept its mouth open, his palm slicing open on the jagged edges of his weapon as he opened up yet another hole for the thing's precious lifeblood to flow out of. The ichor splashed against him and began to pool against his feet.

Makoto gagged at the stench, it smelled like old, rotten, and stagnant blood.

Pulling it out one last time, the mute stepped back and forced its mouth close. Looking it dead in the eye, the raised his weapon before smashing it straight through the center of its mask.

The ornate facade began to crumble, the serpent twitching and rolling over before stilling. Only when its corpse began to break down and evaporate did the blunet take a step back in relief.

Examining his hand, he numbly noted that the cuts on his palm were shallow but still bleed horribly. Letting the arm drop down, he took another look around now that the monster was dead. All around him, the decaying bodies of all of the smaller snakes littered the ground, the ceiling finally free from being smothered by them.

Only the barest amounts of light still lit his immediate area, before what looked like emergency lighting caught his attention. Limping over to the far side of the room, Makoto looked over what seemed to be some sort of computer terminal.

 _Engage Anti-Matter Reactor Manual Reset?_

 _Y/N_

He stared dumbly at the screen, doubting what was on it as to whether he was hallucinating or not. Contemplating whether it was a good idea to hit the buttons on a computer terminal that he wasn't entirely sure what it operated, the mute came to the conclusion that he was simply wasting time at this point.

Looking over the small keyboard below the screen, he found the correct key and pressed it.

The emergency lights flickered briefly, before a soft humming noise filled the area. The room's main lighting suddenly turned on, causing Makoto's eyes to water from the harsh contrast. Directly in front of him was apparently said power generator.

At the far bottom of the machine, some substance crackled and bubbled over and over again. From it, flecks of the main material floated up to where a massive piece of metal spun inside an even larger coil of wiring. Dull, colorless flakes slowly fell back down again to rejoin the original substance.

Stepping away from the process, Makoto ran his eyes over the room.

And promptly wished he'd never touched the damn computer.

What he originally thought were pillars weren't. They were containment tanks. _Occupied_ containment tanks. Dozens of bodies, human bodies, floated around in the suspended liquid. For the mute, the worst part wasn't that they were there, but that whatever they were in had apparently _preserved_ them. Faces ranging from silent horror to dying-mid-scream stared down at him. Underneath it all, the smell of heavy chemicals, feces, and blood assaulted his senses.

Overwhelmed by the flood of despair, Makoto collapsed to his knees and violently vomited.


End file.
